Sasori, I Love You I Hate You
by ShadowJackal35
Summary: Shadow Yamoto is just your average kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf Village, but what happens when the unpredictable Akasuna no Sasori appears in her life? Rated T for swearing and few suggestive themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Sasori, I Love You; I Hate You**

**Chapter One: Just an Ordinary Mission... Right?**

"HEY! HEY SHADOW-CHAN!"

Shadow Yamoto stopped dead in her tracks, her eyebrow twitching as she knew exactly who it was.

"Sakura-San how good it is to see you," she said coolly while putting on a smile. Although she knew Sakura well, she had to admit that she was a bit annoying and, frankly, got on her nerves quite a bit.

"I'm glad I caught you!" Sakura smiled brightly.

Sakura had first met Shadow when she was thirteen years old and when Shadow was assigned to Team Seven. Shadow was the 'substitute' Sasuke supposedly, and from what Sakura knew of Shadow's somewhat secretive history, Shadow never stayed in one group for more than a few months. She had also heard that she had already surpassed Jonin when she was eleven, but for reasons unknown had decided to go back to Genin stage, and by the time she had reached Chunin again she was added to Team Seven.

Although Sakura was older by at least a few months, she held a sort of respect for Shadow. She was a quiet girl; she never spoke unless spoken to, and she always seemed to know something that the others did not, but whatever it was that she knew, she had always kept to herself. In addition to her somewhat apathetic behavior and down-to-earth nature, she always wore plain blue clothes; clothes that never separated her from the rest of the crowd.

Among that, she wore a strange black necklace with weird blue stone that always looked as if it contained a sort of blue smoke and, if looked at carefully, always seemed to swirl around like mist. She was taller than most girls of her age, and thin as well, although not ridiculously so. Altogether Sakura summed her up as an odd one, despite her attempts at blending in. Her voice was deeper than most girls, perhaps not as feminine as most were, but it contained a sort of richness and elegance that no other voice had.

Shadow always smiled when she spoke, but it always seemed as if the joy that she was supposed to feel never reached her eyes and from the first moment Sakura had seen Shadow's first, genuine smile, she had made it her personal mission to make her smile like that again. In the few months Shadow had stayed with the group, Sakura and Naruto had already grown attached to her and she to them, in her own quiet way. It seemed as if she had become the true maternal figure of the group, but as mysteriously as she had appeared, she vanished yet again for another year. Only recently, when Sakura had turned seventeen, and Naruto had returned from his training with Jiraya, the Toad Sage, did she rejoin the village, so naturally Sakura was quite excited to see her again.

"So uh... Shadow-Chan. Are you free tonight? Cuz' the group really wanted you to come to a party tonight! An anniversary really!" Sakura grinned and Shadow had to remain from visibly wincing.

"I'm really very sorry Sakura- san." _Not._ "But I was just heading to the Hokage's office because she was going to give me a mission." As she spoke these words a tinny voice had begun to respond with what she would have rather said, but did not say. Shadow had become used to her, what was it Sakura had described it as? Her "inner side." Yes, Shadow had become used to her tiny "Inner Shadow" that had become so when she was younger. It always seemed to disagree with what she said, and as annoying as it was, Shadow couldn't help but love it. When she was five it was the only thing that kept her sane.

Sakura's head dropped a little and she said with a little less enthusiasm, "Oh... OK Shadow-Chan, maybe next time..." she looked down at the ground then looked back up, back to her cheery state again. "Well maybe next time! See ya'!" She ran off again as Shadow turned around again and headed towards the village's main office. She wasn't lying; she really was getting a new mission this time, but she probably could have made it to the 'party' too, if she tried.

At the office, Shadow went to the desk in the front to address herself. "My name is Shadow Yamoto and I was sent here by request from Lady Hokage," she said handing the little man at the desk the slip of paper that had been signed by the Hokage to allow her in.

The man took it without looking up and said, "Alright. Go on down then," he gave it a quick scan. He always checked the slips, as it was his job, but in reality he really could care less if it was forged or not. He'd been working at a desk for over twenty years with little, if any, action. Why wouldn't the other guys switch places with him? He was always stressed and he thought he deserved a different position.

"Thank you." Shadow said quietly as she turned down the hall. She walked down the hallway knowing exactly where to go. When she got there she saw the new Hokage-in-Training for, some reason or other, hanging upside down from a bar in the ceiling. His flamboyant yellow hair was just barely brushing against the floor as he held on tightly to his Leaf headband which tried to escape his hands and join gravity.

"Hey Naruto, I've seen you doing weird things before but this... This is just new to me." She smirked as Naruto lost hold and fell painfully to the floor on his back.

"Oh, uh… Hey Shadow-Chan! It's been awhile hasn't it?" he said enthusiastically and scrambled to his feet to shake Shadow's hand.

She laughed and said, "Long time no see I guess considering the last time saw you were last week. Where's Tsunade-Sama?"

He laughed and scrambled to his desk. "I don't know, she said she had something important to do. But anyways, you got the messenger bird right?"

"Well, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't," Shadow said, smiling. I_ see Naruto still has as much energy and enthusiasm as he had when we were twelve._ Shadow laughed remembering.

"So anyways your new mission is to go to the Village Hidden in the Sand and recover some information on the spies we've had around here."

"The spies? You mean the ones that were around last week?"

"Yes. Those ones. I've talked to Gaara recently and he said that Suna had the same problems recently, they had also uncovered the same sort of spies so obviously they were sent from another village. We don't know which one, but whichever one it was, they used some sort of jutsu that is completely new to these parts, and I'd like to know what they use. In fact, those spies weren't even human, we ran some DNA tests over the "bodies" of our rats, and found out that 27.7 percent of it was made up of silicon, and 5 percent iron found in each body which leads to the theory that these were only animated bodies made of Earth. Why, we don't know, and how? We are sadly lacking the answers to both of these questions.

"We suspect it has something to do with Kusagakure. So what I want you to do is-"

"Get information, go under cover, and try not to die right?" Shadow asked sarcastically.

"Exactly." Naruto grinned, his smile reaching from ear to ear. "We have some people who we have paid that will keep you a secret, take you in, and will try and help as much as possible."

"OK. When does this start?"

"Actually I was hoping you'd start tomorrow at dawn." Naruto said sheepishly.

"Gee that's so considerate of you. Waking me up using the old rooster alarm trick," Shadow teased.

"Yeah sorry about that but we need this information as soon as possible!"

"You got it."

"Make sure you send me a messenger bird every so often. This mission is an estimated total of say... I think about three to four weeks, maybe more."

"Ok. Great. Thanks Naru- I mean, Great Lord Hokage." Shadow said, smirking again as she made a much unneeded bow, making it as low as possible. Naruto grinned and ushered her out. _I hope I'm not forgetting to tell her anything…_ Was his last thought as the other shinobi left the room.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

The next morning, Shadow rose out of bed and stretched as she turned off the annoying chakra powered clock and trudged to her closet. She had never been a morning person no matter how early she had trained herself to wake up. As she walked to her closet she tripped on her other foot and fell head first into the back of her closet.

"Aw, oww." She moaned as she rubbed her forehead. She was usually fairly balanced, but every so often she somehow found the uncanny ability to trip on herself and in the process hit her head. Hard.

After picking herself up and brushing herself off, berating herself mentally for making herself feel even stupider than usual, she picked her normal uniform; a blue dress that ended at mid-thigh with short sleeves sagging just around her shoulders. Matching blue shorts were worn just underneath and fishnet stockings were pulled just barely past mid-thigh with knee high boots that had openings for her toes were quickly shoved on. She tied her headband around her waist, grabbed her bag, and walked into the main room of her small one floor home.

Her house was, in one word, simple. It had only five tiny rooms total, the full white main room with the door leading outside, the tiny kitchen to the right, her room that was full with only the essentials, a bathroom, and a small guest room where she usually worked on papers. There was also another small bed situated in a corner of the main room for when she was too tired to even crawl into her own room, but usually it was just there if she ever had company, if ever. It was more of a sofa than anything…

She never bothered to use her drawers for anything but paper work, since her bag was bottomless and had no limit to items, hence the name "eternal bag." It was a rare item she had acquired from an important mission as an ANBU, and had found it quite useful ever since. Any owner of the bag could store their chakra through it for later use, and the bag slowly used a small portion of said chakra to transport the items packed in to a separate area where the items lie and since Shadow had an unexplainably large pool of chakra, the bag worked out perfectly. She reached a hand into her bag to pull out the small black bands she wore around her wrists and slipped them on.

As she headed out the door with food, money, and clothes she took a deep breath, smelling the crisp morning air in the Leaf village, and sighing. _Might as well take a few deep breaths before I leave this place for a while._

She smiled to herself as she thought back to her encounter with Sakura the previous day. Apparently she had made it her mission to make Shadow, 'smile' a genuine smile, and she had also gathered other girls in the village who had decided to 'help', as far as she understood. In one way, Shadow saw it as a sweet action and she appreciated it, but in another she found them annoying and considered moving out of the village just to escape them.

After staring at her map of the Land of Fire and figuring out which way she was supposed to travel, she turned left, and headed out of the village.

By mid-morning Shadow was just about one-third of the journey done, and she was glad that she had figured out how to use her 'telekinesis' to travel around with. When she was younger, she always wondered what to do with it and by seventeen she had finally figured out how to control it. It was another one of those unfortunate things she had to live with herself, though at the moment, did not have a known cause.

As she neared a small river she sighed to herself, and had already begun to take her clothes off. Ever since she was able to swim, she loved water because another thing she had found out she could do, was the ability to control it freely. It was an odd advantage, but naturally it had its disadvantages too. Whenever she was near large bodies of water, she always felt the urge to jump in and whenever she resisted she got strange itches and felt mentally ill.

After taking off her outer clothes she was left in her wrappings that formed underclothes and jumped in; then she floated watching the clouds pass when she heard a twig snap by. Alert now, she got up into a water fighting position, glad that she had stopped near a stream. She looked around her, looking for the source of the sound when something walked out from behind a tree.

_A puppet?_ She thought, curiosity beginning to shape.

It was a very ugly puppet. It was dirty and had three eyes, with very messy hair and some tattered dirty black rags that could've counted as a cape or, even more unimaginable, clothes. It looked to be about four feet tall and stood in front of the trees silently, with its coal black eyes staring at her blankly.

Shadow relaxed her stance only slightly; still watching the puppet warily. "Humph... You seem to be a long way from home Mr. Puppet because I don't seem to have recalled seeing any stalls or shops on my way here," Shadow said sarcastically. The puppet stared at her; then suddenly a kunai shot out from its mouth!

Shadow ducked just in time, not bothering to look behind her as she heard the _thunk!_ of the weapon embedding itself into a tree.

"Stupid thing... So you're here for a fight huh? Fine then, I'm ready when you are," she said darkly, almost tauntingly. A sardonic smile passed her lips and almost as if on cue the puppet shot several more kunai blades.

Shadow moved her right arm high into the air and as she did so a sheet of water from the river followed; almost as if the water were an extension of herself. She allowed the kunai to be caught into the water, and then flung them back at the attacker. As the kunai flew toward it she advanced out of the water and onto the sandy banks of the water. Her feet sunk into the sand gently and she began to move closer towards her enemy.

The puppet jumped, and Shadow swore she could've heard an almost mechanical whirring inside as it did so. It began to fling poison smoke bombs at Shadow; by instinct she had rolled out of the way but as she did so though she hadn't noticed a second puppet come out from her right side, ramming her into a tree.

"Ungh!" she yelled as she impacted the tree painfully, she felt the warm liquid drip out from the corner of her mouth. _Great. I'm bleeding._ She thought angrily. She studied the new puppet, which was larger than the last. It too shared the same baggy hair and three black eyes, but unlike the other one this one had small horns reaching towards the sky. She stumbled to her knees Shadow caught sight of something silver and glowing coming out of the huge puppets backs.

_Someone must be controlling this thing. _She thought._ That's it! I need to cut the strings! Cut the strings cut the strings!_ She thought frantically.

She cart wheeled and dodged various weapons that were flung at her until she reached her bag, grabbed her special fans quickly, and jumped onto the puppet. It bucked wildly, trying to throw her off but she held on tightly and quickly scrambled down to its legs, reaching the glowing strings and swiftly cutting all four in one fluid motion. The puppet stopped, its body tensing, and it shuddered, then fell, crashing down right on top of Shadow.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Shadow sneezed and coughed as she got out of the puppet pile. She stood up and brushed herself off.

"Humph... Whoever is controlling this puppet, better come out now and show yourself! I know someone's there; I can feel the rhythm of the pulse of your heart. I want to see what you look like..." Judging by the size of the attacker's feet and the pressure it had against the ground, Shadow guessed that the attacker was a man. A young man perhaps, maybe around her age even. She stood there cautiously waiting as she felt the feet move a fraction of an inch from where they were, but suddenly they disappeared.

"So you figured out how to avoid the vibration trick of mine? Clever..." She said darkly, "Rarely anyone would have guessed, usually they're scared out of their minds and confess."

She searched the air quickly when suddenly her arms and legs were bound together as if some invisible person were binding her with rope. _So that's what those strings are! _Shadow thought furiously. _They must be chakra strings! So this man is a puppeteer?_

_'Well obviously,' _said another tinny voice, belonging to a small chibi that resembled Shadow. This was what had become her "inner side". _'I mean come on, what other type of ninja would be controlling a puppet for the gods' sake?'_

_Shut up. _Shadow thought back to it.

A young man, looking to be eighteen years old, hopped down from a nearby tree. He was very handsome, if a girl were to be looking for a red head. He had rusty red hair, brown eyes that were heavily lidded in a very bored manner on his young, pale face and an expression that could make even the most depressed person there were begin to feel better about themself. He wore the normal chuunin vest, though it was brown and black clothes worn underneath. Wrappings were tied around his arms from his forearm to his wrists and also from mid-calf to his ankles.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked in annoyance.

"Akasuna no Sasori..." the young man replied in a sort of faraway voice "And you... You must be-"

"Shadow Yamoto... And do you have any reason why you've followed me?" Shadow interrupted, she had a habit of interrupting people if they were about to tell her her own name.

"Yeah... I suppose you could say that," he said calmly. "I'm on a mission and I've been told that I was to meet a partner around here."

"And you think I'm your partner?" Shadow asked questioningly, suspicious. "I don't remember any note from the Hokage of Konohagakure saying I had to meet a partner and-"

"You weren't told? Of course not... Gaara, the Kazekage of Village Hidden in the Sand told me that the Hokage where you're from was an airhead and probably would forget to tell you. It seems as if the Kazekage isn't as moronic as he seems to be."

Shadow crouched down as he said this, putting a hand to the ground and feeling the vibrations of the young man's heart. It seemed like he was telling the truth. And it did seem very likely that Naruto would forget. _Idiot, I should've pressed him for more information... _Shadow mentally slapped herself a few times.

"And you expect me believe you?" Shadow asked turning back to him. "Yes, it seems that you're telling the truth... But then again there are amazingly great liars who are able to somehow outsmart their heart. What kind of 'partner' would tie the other up for a greeting?"

"I was testing to see how intelligent you are and to see what kind of partner you would be. Congrats you seem manageable and worthy enough," He said in a monotone voice. "But-"

At this Shadow thought furiously, _Manageable?_ _Worthy Enough? So what, I have to be worthy enough for him?_

_'Gee thanks Naruto. Thanks for pairing me up with an arrogant bastard!' _The chibi shrieked.

"Gee thanks, I am _so_ honored. I'm sure it will be a pleasure to work with you too," She said, emphasizing parts of her sentence sarcasticallt.

"I don't like you." Sasori finished, ignoring Shadow's sarcasm he continued again, "Anyways, now that we've exchanged pleasantries, we need to leave now and get to Sunagakure so you can hear the next part of your mission. Obviously Lord Kazekage will have to make some things clear to you."

Shadow's other side began to bang her head on an imaginary wall repeating over and over, 'idiot'.

"The next part of my mission? I thought my mission was to get to Village hidden in the Grass and require information about the spies."

"It was and still is," Sasori said looking at the sky as if he were praying to the gods to make this particular mission quick. _I hate waiting, and this stupid girl is wasting my time. _He thought in annoyance. "So Lord Hokage didn't tell you about that part either?" He said rolling his eyes only slightly

_Damn you, Naruto! He didn't tell me what I was supposed to do! _Shadow thought, her inner self banging her head even harder on the mental wall. So hard in fact that the chibi was beginning to bleed.

_What else didn't he tell me? _Shadow thought bitterly. _It's no wonder he's still only in-training._

"I'm afraid he didn't," Shadow said politely, a small frown tugging on her lips.

"Well. Turns out that the spies from the Sand village were Grass shinobi that were using an unknown jutsu to cover as one of our own and we are to be sent to the Village hidden in the Grass to find out why. Also, because this is a jutsu entirely different from Henge no Jutsu, we are to find out the properties. How they were able to turn an inanimate object such as clay molds into working puppets, without the use of chakra strings.

"You were paired with me because I represent Suna for our alliance, and also because as you know, I, myself am a puppet master with knowledge on the workings of puppets, so it all works out. Though to be honest, I'm not sure why they picked you out of all shinobi."

The compressed feeling on Shadow's ankles and hands let go completely as she was released and she stood up. _Well at least that part is confirmed._

"We need to leave as soon as possible so we can get to the Sand village quickly, got that? I don't like slow people, so if you are slow you might as well turn back to your village and let me do the mission myself, because I won't wait for long." Sasori said as he turned around and started down the path.

_Arrogant ass._

"Sure." Shadow said as she pulled on her uniform again.

"Oh, and another thing." Sasori stopped and turned around to look at his new partner.

"Yes?"

"Don't keep me waiting." He turned back again and walked down the worn path. Shadow blew a raspberry at him and muttered to herself, "Don't keep me waiting, rah rah rah. Whatever..."

_This girl... Her necklace... Is of strange properties. I wonder, what could it mean? _Sasori wondered, making sure to walk a few steps ahead of his strange partner as she caught up to him. _I'm sure this will be an... Interesting... Mission. Interesting indeed._

And off the two walked starting the mission and changing Shadow's life forever. For better or for worse? She didn't know.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

On the road it had been noticeably clear that Sasori was to be the one in charge; any objections and Shadow would be sent home. By nightfall Shadow and Sasori had reached the halfway point of their journey and Sasori decided that they had walked enough to take a break for the night and set up camp.

They had talked little throughout the walk and only made irrelevant comments such as, "The weather sure is nice today." or, "It may rain tomorrow, we should probably get to the village as soon as possible." Shadow mostly did the speaking to be polite and Sasori answered quietly; he only returned the question or comment when he thought necessary. Shadow had even gone so far as to explain her elder brother Riku for conversation, who was similar to Sasori in ways. _Same arrogance and same level of cluelessness as to handle girls._ The chibi concluded to herself.

Later that night, after they finished eating, Shadow decided to go out looking for another stream. "Why?"

Shadow was surprised when the question followed her announcement. Very surprised, in fact. Since when was _he_ interested in what she did? They've only been traveling together for a few hours, and although not very long at all, Shadow had already figured out that nearly nothing impressed Sasori. So when he actually sounded interested in this one little detail, it took a few moments for her to reply.

"W-well..." She said, cursing herself for stuttering. "Well... You see, I'm just... More comfortable around bodies of water, and I thought that I would be able to take advantage of this chance before we reached desert land." She paused for a moment to think. "You know... I have a sister, a fraternal twin actually, and... Well... I don't know. We're just naturally comfortable around certain elements. Water is where I belong I suppose." She bit her lip as she tried to explain her situation better.

Sasori shrugged and said, "Fair enough."

"If you want to watch then you can come, I could care less," Shadow said turning around. She held her hands in front of her so Sasori wouldn't see her crossing her fingers and hoping that he wouldn't.

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Sasori said but then he murmured sarcastically, "But then again it may be an interesting waste of time..." Shadow wasn't convinced in the slightest as she twitched, hearing his last sentence.

"Right. Whatever. See you in a couple hours I guess."

"Don't tire yourself out. You need your energy tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah I get it. Gods what are you? My mother? I didn't think you were the maternal type." Her last comment trailed behind her and Sasori smirked.

Shadow started walking down the path, enjoying the moonlight as it bathed her in its silvery glow. It was a half-moon that night, not too bad, but not exactly in Shadow's favor. She walked along the road as her mind flooded with thoughts.

It was so full of random thoughts, that if you had used some sort of mind reader, all you would've heard was a mixed babble. But despite all of these other thoughts whizzing through her mind, she could only focus on how odd her so-called, "partner" was. She couldn't decide whether he was a natural odd-ball or if he had spent many years in training to become one.

She walked further up the road until she heard the faint sound of trickling water. She followed the sound off the road. She could already feel the gentle tug of water.

She only took off her shoes as she continued to revise the events that day. It had happened so quickly. After several ice ages she began working intently on how to make a fox out of ice and would move around like one, to fool an opponent when-.

_Crack!  
_  
The sound of cracking tree branches came eerily from a small patch of trees and shattered the peaceful silence. "Hello?" Shadow called. "Is someone there? Sasori-San?"

_Not talking, huh? Hmm... Figures. I guess that it's time to go back to camp. _She slipped her left foot into her boot and grabbed her other shoe, already heading towards the road she walked off.  
_  
_She hopped to the road as she pulled on her right shoe, and turned around briskly facing the road and starting to take long strides back to camp. She swore she could hear the gentle sound of footsteps from behind her and that she could hear the faint sound of 'whoosh' when the air was sliced through by a body passing by at a quick speed.

Whoever was following her was just lucky that at the moment her boots were separating her feet from the ground, muffling the vibrations more than it would if she were barefoot. But it would be too dangerous to go running around without shoes and she didn't want to tip off her followers that she knew they were around, even if they didn't know of her special ability. Not only would she look like a mad woman without shoes, but she could also step on something dangerous without noticing it.

Suddenly the night didn't seem as peaceful and relaxing as it had before. Shadow tensed slightly as the shadows of the trees suddenly looked more disturbing and frightening than when she had arrived. This was just one of the many ways she ended a night during a mission.

When she got to camp she saw that Sasori hadn't moved an inch from where he was before, but this time, he was playing with a sort of hand-sized puppet. He looked up when he heard the sound of Shadow's approach. "Back huh?"

"Yeah, you don't mind do you?" She asked sarcastically as her chibi rolled her eyes. "Because we certainly wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

All of a sudden Sasori's puppet disappeared and before she knew it, he had thrown several shuriken at her. She side stepped them quickly as she heard the sound of metal clash against metal and turned around to see other shinobi had appeared.

_So these were the mice that had been following me. Good to know I wasn't going crazy or anything from before._ Shadow thought, almost in relief. For a moment she had almost doubted herself.

She smirked and said aloud, "So you were the silent little mice following me? Good to know I'm not crazy or anything. You sure hid your sounds well, expected from Sound shinobi," she glanced at the grey headbands around their foreheads and studied their attire.

One was a woman, her long brown hair reaching to her waist. Her brown eyes were glaring at her and her hand lay on top of the dark grey holster wound tightly around her right thigh. Her fingers twitched only slightly, probably itching to hurl her metal weapons. She wore light black pants that ended at mid-calf, and a grey sweater was tied around her waist. She wore wrappings around her shoulder blades and a sleeveless black shirt beneath it and was tight around her petite waist, showing off a fairly muscled and well developed body.

Her partner was a man with brown hair sticking out in every direction. It looked as if he had been struck by lightning and Shadow had to cough to cover up a laugh. He too wore clothes that resembled the woman's and showed off muscles that practically screamed that they had been worked on 24/7 from day one of birth.

"Akasuna no Sasori, Yamoto Shadow, we are required for you to come along with us." the man said gruffly. His voice was deep and menacing, with enough evidence to suggest that he knew not of what the term 'joy' or 'laughter' meant.

"And why is that?" Sasori asked coolly, he already seemed bored. _Typical_, Shadow thought.

"We have been commanded to ask recruit you."

"I'm terribly sorry, Mister and Miss," Shadow said sarcastically. "But we aren't for sale and aren't unemployed."

"If you do not join then prepare for a blackout." The woman said threateningly. Her voice somewhat had an edge to it, a hidden sound that resembled... Something. A sound Shadow knew, but could not quite place.

Shadow smirked as she said, "Then bring it." Her fierce blue eyes were laughing at them. And then, the sound ninja charged.

The female rushed at Shadow as the male took up a fight with Sasori. Shadow brought out her fans and threw them, as the sound ninja ducked in time.

_So close. _Shadow thought as the sound ninja rapidly did some hand sings. As the smoke cleared, it revealed a very long katana, at least four feet long with a polished mahogany handle. The other kunoichi swung it at Shadow, she had little time to react but made a shield formed by her chakra just in time and the sword made no crack in the shield at all, as Shadow kept her concentration.

"So it is true after all. The Yamoto clan really has been gifted with special powers. Powers not needing hand signs at all. Impressive."

"Oh you've seen nothing yet," Shadow muttered darkly. "The things I can do are far from impressive. This is only the beginning of our curse."

The ninja swung her sword around again and Shadow ducked in time to kick the other kunoichi's feet right from under her. Shadow missed the other ninja's foot so instead she quickly jumped up in time to land on the flat side of the swinging blade.

Her weight forced it down on an angle and implanted itself into the ground. Shadow took this as an opportunity of attack and threw her foot at the kunoichi's face. She blocked and was quickly kicked back a few feet from the force of the blow. As her opponent slid backwards, Shadow took water out of the water bag at her hip, and froze the long sword into the ground.

As the other woman ran towards the Leaf ninja, she punched and forced as much strength as she could into her attack. Shadow blocked and then kicked her leg upward to the side of the sound ninja's face almost hitting her, but instead was caught in a firm grasp. Using her free leg Shadow swung it high into the air and attempted to kick the sound ninja under her chin.

The sound kunoichi had caught this leg too and swung Shadow to the side, Shadow's head almost hitting painfully into the dirt. As she recovered, the sound ninja rushed to her sword and forced it out. She successfully ripped it out and then jabbed at the Leaf kunoichi again. Shadow grimaced as she side stepped, the sharp edge of the sword lightly grazing her side as she kicked the underside of her attacker's hands, throwing the sword out of her grasp. The sword was flung into the air and flipped several times in the air before implanting itself yet again into the ground. They took a few more swings and in the end Shadow successfully held a kunai next to the other kunoichi's throat.

"Sorry," she said. "But I'm a just a bit more advanced than you." She smirked slightly, as she pushed the kunai more threateningly into the other girl's neck. A small trickle of blood flowed out onto the sharp edge and the girl smirked herself.

"Not at all," she hissed. She swiftly made some hand signs, and the blood rose from the blade, and punched Shadow back like a real fist.

_What the hell?_

"Don't you know who I am?" The younger girl snickered. "I am Aiko, the Blood ninja. Unlike the other sound shinobi of my village, I am able to make use of any blood that spills from my body. How unfortunate for you, but it looks as if I am the one who is more advanced."

Moving her fingers into the tiger hand sign, the fist made of blood hardened into shapes that resembled senbon and acupuncture needles. There were many of them, and already they had surrounded the area.

_I will not fail Lord Ryumaru this time! _The sound ninja thought in triumph.

_There are too many of them; I can't escape! Damn it, I'm finished! _Shadow thought frantically; eyes widening.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_There are too many! Damn it, I'm finished! _Shadow thought frantically; eyes widening.

_Clang! _The metallic sound came loudly as Shadow felt something warm on her face.

_That's weird... _she thought her eyes still shut tightly closed. _This smell... it smells oddly like... BLOOD?_

_That's it! Am I bleeding? Or am I imagining this and I'm already dead? _She opened her eyes but what she saw surprised her. It was Sasori standing over the sound kunoichi's body. Several kunai protruded from her back and her eyes were like brown buttons.

"You rang?" Sasori asked smirking. "It looked like you needed help."

Shadow closed her eyes as a vein popped on her chibi. "Yes. Actually I did... Thank goodness you came in time," She said returning the cool expression and staring through Sasori's eyes.

His eyes were a black pond. Not a ripple or a small trace of emotion in them. A blank stare was all there was, and it kind of spooked her. "We need to get going again," Shadow said tearing her gaze away from the red head, and looking instead at the ninja's bodies. "We need to leave before we get anymore unexpected and unwanted visitors."

"Right."

The two headed back to camp hiding all remains of them being there carefully and quickly. They headed out again stopping about four miles away and instead of setting camp just sat down and took a long, yet alert nap.

* * *

The partners woke by noon and immediately started off again. Finally, FINALLY they got to the village. Shadow sighed in relief that at least now there was a huge town filled with people to hide behind, should any more enemies appear.

They headed to the center of the bustling town, passing many yelling merchants, trying to persuade people to come and buy their items.

"Hey you, young man," said an old man, walked towards Sasori. "You thinkin' 'bout marrying that young lass soon? If so then you've come to the right place. You have." He waved at his shop, the kanji for "Jewelry" printed on the flap overhead.

"Oh no, we aren't a couple," Shadow said quickly ducking her head as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

"That's so cold my dear, wasn't our plan to marry this spring?" Sasori asked, smirking and holding Shadow's shoulders in mock tenderness.

Shadow glared at him as she elbowed him hard in the stomach (which he was able to block) and she quickly slipped out of his grip. She began walking a faster pace than before to the Kazekage's "palace". They got to the Kazekage's large sand castle like home by late afternoon and were guided straight to his personal office.

"Gaara, good to see you. Or should I say Great Lord Kazekage like I do with Naruto?" Shadow said smiling at the familiar young red head.

"It is unnecessary. Shadow it's good to see you too. And you, Sasori," he smiled and said in his familiar raspy voice as he nodded respectfully to Sasori, waving his hand in a motion meaning to sit down.

They sat on large sky blue cushions on the floor, as he took a seat behind a small table in front of his desk and lacing his fingers. "So it looks like Sasori gave you the message right? It really wasn't expected but as you know, Naruto, he forgot to tell you the other part of the mission. He made sure to send a messenger to me so _I_ could tell you in person what's been going on." He looked between Shadow and Sasori, and then continued. "As Naruto told you, there have been spies around here who had impersonated some of our own warriors. ANBU, no less, and several attempts have been made to, ehrm, assassinate myself and Lady Tsunade."

"So what do you want me to do?" Shadow asked.

"I would like for you and Sasori to go to the Village Hidden in the Grass, going as a daughter of a well-known hot spring owner's friend, and your story will be that you had come to learn the ehrm... _Interesting_... Yes, _interesting_ ways of how to become a masseuse and such. But while there you need to find ways as to how to get into their Record Halls, reclaim information; then get out of there and head to the next place I'm sending you to."

"So this is more like several missions at the same time, huh?"

"Yes; as soon as you're finished in the Grass village, we need you to go to the Sound Village, and possibly the Village Hidden in the Clouds, if you haven't collected enough information. Alright?"

Sasori and Shadow answered in unison, "Yes sir."

Gaara smiled, "Right, then you are dismissed."

As they left the room Gaara chuckled to himself. "I suppose you were right Naruto. They really would make a cute couple. They are so much alike. Maybe a little too much for comfort..."

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Ugh, I Really Hate this Place **

Before they left the village Shadow and Sasori had walked around looking for food stands so they could stock up on more supplies and food and, to Shadow's annoyance, were continually mistaken as a couple and had to repeatedly decline merchants' offers. By the time the tenth merchant had made her observation, this time a woman selling elegant kimonos, Shadow had gotten smart and finally decided to cross the road so she was no longer next to _him_. The red haired "demon" that always seemed to enjoy her embarrassment.

By sunset the streets were fairly empty; which allowed the pair to move around more freely and Shadow decided that it was finally safe to rejoin the red-head. By night fall they successfully made it out of the village and were on their way to the Grass village.

In between breaks Shadow had begun to read the scrolls she bought in the Suna on the Grass shinobis' ways and she had become so involved in its history she ran and fell into various bushes that grew in the desert and slipped in sand pits constantly. When she decided that she had had enough of getting hurt, she twisted to the side to shove the scroll back into her bag and she caught sight of Sasori's shoulders shaking only subtly. Although he himself was silent and his face emotionless, she could tell that he was laughing at her.

She blushed as her chibi screamed, _He's laughing at me! That arrogant bastard is laughing at me! What the hell gives him the idea that it's funny with me suffering and having to read all these crazy customs? I mean, seriously, who the hell would've thought up a holiday called "Flower Day" when all you do is walk up to people by random, and give them flowers, then say "I like you lots" and run off again! What a load of... That's almost exactly like Valentine's Day! Or even White Day! Only stupider._

Shadow blushed saying through tightly clenched teeth, "Care to share what's so funny?" she looked at him as he glanced away with another arrogant smirk on his face.

"Not really."

Shadow's chibi popped another vein. "We should probably stop for the night," she said, glancing at the sun slowly sinking behind the hills.

"Well, I suppose if _you_need to..." He shrugged as he walked past her, laughing. Shadow quietly steamed as she followed behind.

They lit a fire and Shadow began reading her scroll as she ate. She stopped for a little, and looked up. It was odd, for a moment there she thought she could feel the eyes of someone watching her. Of course Sasori was playing with his little puppet again and she concluded that it was just paranoia because they had left the safety of the Sand village.

She discarded the thought, and went back to reading.

By the next few days they were on the outskirts of the Village Hidden in the Grass and quickly slipped in finding the address to where they were to stay. In an alley way, Shadow quickly pulled on a blue and black collared yukata, and pulled her hair in a bun (but to her dismay strands on both sides of her hair hung down and wouldn't behave so she was forced to leave them hanging) and then she added the final touch by forcing in a pair of chopsticks and a hairclip in the form of a dragonfly on her bun.

The dragonfly clip was the family representation of the people she was to live with and finally, to mask her eyes she placed in a black pair of contacts that made her natural eye color look black. When she finished she had released her concentration on the wall she had formed and pushed Sasori out of the way. Her so called 'wall' was actually see-through, and outlined everything in white while colored the rest black so Sasori had promised not to look and to block the way casually as his partner changed.

"I'm supposed to sleep at the Shirotsuki Inn," Sasori said, already walking to the left. "You know where you're going, right." His last words were supposed to be in the form of a question, but the way he had said it was more like a comment than real concern.

"Yeah," Shadow said slightly annoyed. They split up, Shadow turning right and when she got to the house she was a little surprised at how nice it looked, but then she remembered that this was a family who owned their own hot springs and spa. _Didn't think they were that rich though. _She thought.

The house was about two stories tall, and had a balcony on the second floor. Green herbs hung off the side of the house over the roof and vibrant flowers in beautiful potted plants lined the winding sidewalk to the house. Cherry blossom trees also lined the walk way. Shadow knocked on the mahogany door when she reached it and it opened to reveal a very fat woman who filled the doorway.

"Ah! Hello, hello!" She called cheerily. "You must be Yumi Yumeka!"

"Yes," Shadow said smiling she thought awkwardly, _Yumi Yumeka? Seriously? Come on Naruto, you could've come up with a better name than that..._ She pulled out a red envelope from her bag and handed it to the woman. It was, as she was told, an envelope which contained the directions the woman was supposed to follow and her pay.

_Naruto and Gaara must be paying her a pretty high sum of money for doing this. _Shadow thought again. _Not many merchants would do these kinds of things for other villages unless they were promised a something big._

'As if this family needed any more money, this house is so big and it looks as if this woman hasn't missed a meal once!'

The chibi argued.

The woman bustled Shadow into a pink room. Explaining that her name was Yura, and also telling Shadow what part she would be playing as. Supposedly, Shadow's mother had saved Yura from a gang of kids and in return for her kindness Yura offered to teach Shadow of the 'feminine ways' because apparently, as her mother said, Shadow lacked feminineness. _Reeeeaaaal original Naruto._She thought sarcastically.

Shadow cringed as she was sat down onto the pink couch; it wasn't just the complete pink room that annoyed her. Not even the pink and white tiled floor, but the whole story itself had, in Shadow's opinion, too many holes and unexplained details. She felt that if someone were smart enough they would be able to figure out that it was all a lie in an instant and the fact that everything in the room was pink just made things worse. From the couch to the window shades, even the marble tiles on the floor were pink.

"So you will be playing as my sister's friend's niece who has taken in an interest for the way of a hot spring maid. Now I bet you're tired from your long journey so please let me show you your room!"

_It's been only five minutes since my arrival, _Shadow thought warily to herself. _And I'm already beginning to hate this place. Hello stress, good-bye relaxation._

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: You Feminine? Yeah Right! **

Shadow's room had not really been any better than the living room, but at least it wasn't so _pink_. Her room was still pink, but more of a darker shade and looked almost like it was turning red. Almost like the shade of a deep blush. She almost laughed. _Wow, this woman is NUTS about pink. _She rolled her eyes and said, "Thank you very much, I really do appreciate this."

"Oh no, thank you dearie. Now, I'll be leaving you here now so you can get used to here and freshen up, and then I'll call you down for supper. My son said he'd pop in tonight with my other niece Tia. I'll come up in about twenty minutes. I've left you a kimono in your closet, it should be there. If you need help putting on your night kimono, just call."

Shadow smiled lightly and then sighed as her door slid shut. She dropped her eternal bag (which had been carefully stowed under her kimono) on the rich red blanket, which lay on the large bed in the center of her temporary room, and headed out onto the balcony. She leaned on the rail and pulled her hair out of the pins. The railing was white marble and it too had herbs and flowers twisting around it.

Shadow placed the hair clip and chopsticks on it as she looked across to her left another balcony, leading into some hotel room from what Shadow could see. To her right, she saw a small lake, obviously man made, and mountains even further back. Across the lake she saw the roof tops of buildings in the city. Everything seemed peaceful until she looked back to the balcony to her left and there sat a young man sitting there lazily, who was none other but Sasori himself.

"It's funny how you were placed at an inn right beside where I'm at," Shadow said sarcastically. "Geez, what do I have to do to get a rid of you?"

"Ah, that was mean Shadow-Chan," Sasori said with equal sarcasm. "Who would want to get a rid of a charming young man such as myself?" He grinned cockily at her.

_More like an arrogant dork. _She thought before replying, "Oh yes you're very charming. Especially with the fact that all you do is play around with your dolls. Geez, do you _ever_ work?"

He looked away towards the houses which seemed to stretch for miles ahead and then turned his head to look up. Shadow looked too, admiring the pink, orange, and dark purple stripes streaking the sky as the sun began to sink down. Another day was passing and going.

"Of course I do, but I'm sure you know, being your babysitter is much harder than it seems and tends to distract me from it."

"I'm _sure_ it does and- CRAP! I have to get dressed!" Shadow cried running back into the room and pulling off one of her opened toed shoes.

"What, are you going on some hot date or something? Without your charming young escort?" Sasori called, teasing.

"Yeah, actually I am," Shadow replied as she closed the doors and rolled down the shades on the window.

She hurriedly got out of the blue kimono and into a similar green and gold one, one that sharpened the color of her black contacts and hair. She put her hair back up in a bun and reached on her dresser for the hair clip and chopsticks. She felt for it and then looked around for it, her right hand still tightly grasping her modeled bun. _Damn it, I must've left it out on the balcony. _

She opened the door with her left hand and walked back out. Sasori had already disappeared and her heart almost stopped as she looked at the white marble rail. The accessories were gone. _Uh-oh... Oh Gods. Why is this happening to me? It must've fallen off or something when I rushed back inside. Gods damn it; I'm gonna be in soo much trouble. _

_'Good going genius.' _Her chibi said sarcastically.

_Shut up, will you? _Shadow thought back. Since the door to her balcony was open she heard the soft knocking on her door and Yura came in.

"I'll help with your kimono if you like."

"Uh, sure." Shadow said with a slight nervous edge to her low voice.

Shadow let the woman tie the black obi when she realized her mistake. _Is this woman trying to strangle something inside my kimono or me? She's tying the obi WAY to tight! _Shadow gritted her teeth forcing her words to come out calmly, "Thank you for helping. But I think the obi is tight enough."

The other woman blushed saying, "Oh yes. I'm sorry you're just so slender I wanted to make sure the obi didn't untie."

_Oh yeah, make sure my obi doesn't fall my ass. Are you some sort of secret assassin? With a move like that you could kill someone in an instant! Oh, and one other thing lady, last time I checked, obis are not corsets. _

They walked down the fancy winding stairs down where Shadow met, Li, _A definite womanizer. _She thought, irritated.

Li was extremely handsome. _But not in the unperturbed, laid-back way like Sasori. Whereas Sasori looks like he has incredible skill, Li looks only as if looks were the only thing on his side._ Shadow blushed as she thought about this. _Great, I'm starting to compare other guys from Sasori. Stupid, stupid Shadow! _

"How do you do young lady?" Li asked his voice rich and deep. His golden eyes twinkled. He had tan skin, almost bronze and it seemed almost as if he were glowing. His golden blonde hair only improved this idea.

_Geez, this guy looks way too much like a playboy. Is he a male prostitute of some sort? I'm a bit scared of knowing the truth... _Shadow thought still blushing.

_'Damn it Shadow! Stay composed, whatever you do, do not fall for this artificial clown!' _Shadow's inner side shouted at her.

"Mother, I don't remember you telling me about a beautiful young lady like this one here," he said as he flashed perfectly straight and white teeth in Shadow's direction. She looked at the ground, unconvinced that she could resist his charm.

"Oh didn't I?" came Yura's innocent voice. "Oh yes, that's right, you see, I met Yumi-chan's mother in an alley because I was trying to take a shortcut to a friend's. Some awful kids began harassing me but her mother came and saved me. Then I met Yumi-chan here and told her how we owned our own hot springs. She was enchanted and her mother has arranged some practices with me so perhaps she could become as successful as us." She smiled and quickly changed the subject. "Now are you hungry Li? What about you Yumi-chan? Tia?" She asked addressing them all, including her eight-year-old niece, Tia.

"Yes, let's eat! Shall we?" Li exclaimed.

"Let's eat!" Tia giggled.

After a very uncomfortable dinner (as Shadow suffocated in her obi and tried to choke down her food), she rarely spoke but answered all the questions that were asked in a somewhat convincing tone. After what seemed like a century, dinner ended. At least, that's what Shadow thought.

"Would you like to go outside for a walk Yumi-Chan?" Li asked flashing another smile.

"Yes. Why not? It is a lovely night out I am sure," Shadow said playing her role. She mimicked a high pitched voice that she had heard back in Suna.

They got out of the house and Shadow breathed in as much cool air as her lungs could pull in without bruising herself. As Li looked down the street to make sure it was empty she quickly loosened the obi in the back and breathed deeper. _I have the feeling that tomorrow I'll wake up with bruised ribs..._ she thought irritably. _That's the last time I'm unprepared here, and definitely the last time I ever allow someone to tie my own clothes. _

"You were right, it's a lovely night, is it not?" Li commented turning his attention back towards Shadow.

"Oh yes," She replied. She felt rather uncomfortable because not only did she feel like she was being watched again, but because she saw Li was looking her up and down.

"Very nice kimono. It shows your eyes well," He said as they started walking.

"Thank you," Shadow murmured wondering whether she should be happy to have gotten a complement, or disgusted that someone like him had said it.

They walked along the almost empty streets and Li bragged about all the successful missions he'd gone on. Shadow just "ahh'd" and "uh-huh-d" at the times she thought were appropriate. They had passed a flower stand earlier, and Li had bought a red rose for Shadow and then tucked it in her hair. After several more minutes of walking, they came across large stone steps leading up to a building.

"What's that way?" Shadow asked.

"Oh just the Record Halls, a library really," Li said as he ushered her past. "Why don't we turn around and head back for the night?"

"Yes. I am feeling a bit drowsy." Shadow said faking a yawn.

They turned back getting to the house and Li said his good night and kissed her hand. As he did this it took just about all of Shadow's restraint not to punch him. He left and Shadow rushed upstairs to her room to look out her balcony. Although it was a fair distance away she could recognize the red roof of the Record Halls, even in the moon light.

_Great, now I know where they are. _She kept looking out the window and took out the substitution hairclip she had used to pin up her hair into a bun but she dropped it when she heard the familiar snicker.

"You shouldn't have taken that out you know. You actually looked pretty. _Almost _feminine, oh, and please notice the emphasis on 'almost'."

Shadow continued calmly looking for the clips but on the inside her chibi covered in popped veins. _'Damn... Sasori...'_

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Y U So Annoying?! **

_Damn... Sasori... so now he's criticizing me again. _

"Gee... Thanks..." Shadow said staring down the balcony looking for the clip again. "I... Am _so_ dead. I don't even have any replacements..." she muttered.

Sasori watched from his balcony, a smirk tugging his lips slowly. "You'll have to look for them both tomorrow Miss. Butter Fingers," he said. He smiled in his own charming way, a smile that was half a smirk of amusement and half a "Is that so?" smirk, as his puppet waved cheekily. Shadow groaned as she dipped her head and ignored him.

"So, how was your date with Mister Playboy?" he asked, a full smirk on his face now.

Shadow glared. "It wasn't a date."

"You went out with him though. That counts as a date."

"Yeah I went outside. Not out on a date and just for the record... It kind of... Well... It sucked... The guy is more arrogant than you. But then again, I suppose no one could be more arrogant than you. I'm sure that if I hadn't told him I was tired, he would've continued on until who knows when."

"Well, it serves you right..." Sasori said. He stared at the moon and without looking away he continued, "Anyways, I heard you mention the Record Halls. I'm going too so I'll make sure to wait for you or something. I know how much you love to sleep in."

"Why?" Shadow sighed deeply because it had taken her most of her willpower not to shoot back another insult.

"Because I have a job to do of course."

"Since when? As far as I know, you've never done anything to overexert yourself, and that's speaking from hanging around you for over two weeks."

"Exactly. I have missions too you know. I have to survive _somehow_ and apparently money is the way to go." He spoke to Shadow in his infamous "what-are-you-stupid-or-something?" kind of tone and she twitched.

"Heeh? And who is it that you're working under?"

"A person."

"And that person is?"

"A shinobi of course."

Shadow sighed deeply as she pressed the tips of her fingers to her temples. "Whatever, seeing as you don't want to speak in full sentences I'll just be going now."

"You do that."

She left him still staring at the moon muttering, "Is he a lunatic or something? He sure likes to look at the moon enough."

"I'm not any more crazy than you are," he replied lazily, his way of saying, "I-heard-that-and-I'm-not-letting-you-get-away-it". "Actually I think anyone could be saner than you. As far as I know, you could even beat Granny at her own games, I'm sure." He grinned lazily catching the kunai that she had thrown at him. "Too slow, now put that away, or you'll be caught. A proper young lady such as yourself should not be seen carrying or throwing weapons with such small and _dainty_ hands." He smirked at the last sentence; then he went back to playing with a puppet as Shadow went into her room closing the doors.

"Stupid, _stupid_ IDIOT!" Shadow yelled at the door.

_Why does it feel as if he was only born to piss me off?_ She thought annoyed as she climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Sasori smirked to himself, "You've only brought this on yourself," he said to an imaginary Shadow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning, as soon as she woke up, Shadow had to create a Shadow Clone. "Right, so," she began. "I need to go to the Record Halls today so I need you to take my place, 'kay?" The clone nodded as she studied her nails.

"Okay then there really isn't anything you have to worry about other than Li. I have a feeling that he won't be able to keep his hands to himself today." She shuddered and the clone nodded, not glancing away from her oh-so-important subject. "You know what he looks like, right?"

The other thought for a little then said, "He's that cute red haired guy with the brown eyes and beautiful-"

"No!" Shadow snapped quickly blushing furiously. _Great, now my own clones are disagreeing with me. That's just great. Weren't clones supposed to be, like, synchronized with the original body?_

"No, that's Sasori. Li has a bronze tan, golden eyes and golden hair. Err... Okay, I guess that may be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point I assume. You'll know if you see him, but make sure he doesn't see you. Oh, and you might have to wear this all day. I'll tie it for you so Yura doesn't suffocate you like she did to me." She winced at the memory and held up a blue obi. By early morning they were both ready to go.

Shadow wore a plain blue shirt with sleeves ending at her elbows and black pants with a plain buckle. She pulled on shoes that her toes poked out and reached to her ankles; finally she adjusted the straps to her bag and pulled it around her waist, then buckled it. She shoved in a hair pin in her hair to keep it out of her face.

She started out the balcony as her double left through the door and looked towards Sasori's balcony to see if he was there or not and sure enough he was sitting on the railing. _Playing puppets. Again. _She thought lamely.

"Do you ever do anything besides play with puppets?" She asked annoyed. "I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of seeing you actually work for something."

"You just don't look at the right times." He said not looking up until the puppet he had been playing with was thrown up into the air by an unseen force. Shadow had used a bit of her power to throw the puppet up into the air and guided it into her hand. "Come on," She said as she threw it back to him.

"Alright, whatever." He caught it, and shoved it into some unseen bag hidden under his Jonin vest.

They got to the corner right before the Record Halls when Sasori stopped Shadow. "You should probably use a masking jutsu considering these guards may recognize you later."

"Right. Henge no Jutsu." She turned into another red headed girl with high pigtails and she strangely looked similar Sasori if he were to be a girl. _Or, _she thought smirking inwardly, _If he learned Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu... Now that would be entertaining. _She laughed inwardly.

Sasori smirked, "I think I look beautiful," he said sarcastically noticing the resemblance.

Shadow blushed saying, "You're an idiot..." _Damn... Him..._

"Thank you." He replied.

They got to the top of the stairs and greeted the guards outside the doorway calmly. There was nothing suspicious about a pair of siblings going to the library. None at all. The guard on the right grunted; he was probably disappointed he wouldn't get to use his mean looking spear on someone. This job was just _so_ boring!

Although Li had overreacted a bit when Shadow had made her observation, the Records Hall was really nothing more than a large public library, just like he said. Of course, there were restricted areas for special people with permission slips, but it was heavily secured and all other areas were hidden from visibility. When the two were out of earshot Shadow undid the jutsu and the two went their separate ways. Shadow immediately began searching for more records on the Grass village and Sasori left to do... Whatever it was he was supposed to do.

Shadow wandered around bored, and none of the scrolls or books was catching her attention until she met a full, almost exploding shelf of books. She began to pull the books out of the shelf; one after another. _What are they hiding behind this shelf? There's gotta be something pretty damn important to be stuffing a perfectly good bookshelf to the brim and almost to bursting. _

When she finished pulling the large encyclopedias out, a pretty large empty hallway appeared behind it. She looked around to make sure no one else was around, and then swung the shelf slightly outward.

"What? A hallway, huh? Well, isn't that suspicious." she murmured and slipping carefully past the shelf. She walked down for what seemed like forever, but stopped when she came to a door that looked old and as if it hadn't been opened in years, maybe even hundreds of years.

She tried opening but it was locked. She thought to leave it but when she felt strange vibrations she decided to try and get in. She took out her fans out from her bag which she had tied to her waist; _just in case something is there. _She thought. She began to kick the door several times before it gave up and fell off its hinges.

What she was met by amazed her entirely. The room was full of clay models of ninjas who resembled greatly of the kages. The only one missing was the current Kazekage, Gaara. Surrounding them was an entire army of statues. Each one held a different expression and from what she could see none of them shared the same expression. It looked a bit creepy really; she felt as if they were all staring at her, even though none of them had pupils. But still... She couldn't shake the odd feeling of paranoia.

_Well I suppose these statues explain those spies from earlier... But what the heck is this? Is it a war room of some sort? _Not only were there the statues but there were also monitors of what seemed to be of everyone in the whole village._ Tabs of important people perhaps? _Shadow thought, looking up onto one of the screens and seeing a young man and woman in the park kissing. _Okay... Not something that important to keep tabs on. _ She stuck her tongue out and then continued on.

She looked on to another screen that showed what looked to be like prisoners working on breaking coal. She looked on. On another screen it showed Sasori in his part of the massive library.

He looked like he was reading a scroll but from another angled camera it showed that he was looking off into space. A blank look on his face, as usual. _Idiot. And I thought I was slacking a bit much by not finding anything. _She walked away from the screens to file cabinets that were, of course, all locked. _Let's see what they're keeping in here. _

She walked to the bottom cabinet and thought for a second, wondering how to break the lock without it being obvious. She smiled as she remembered the hair pin she had put in her hair, and then picked the lock using her hairpin. After it was open she took out a file by random. She looked at it, not really expecting to read anything important, when the big print at the top caught her eye._ Eyari, Yura. Eyari... That's Yura's last name! And that's Yura's photo! _

There was a picture clipped on with a picture of Yura, including all the information about her. Jobs, birthday, specials, blood type, marriages, children, travel documents, height... Basically information based on everything about her. Shadow skimmed some of them then scurried to put it back searching for the Y section. _Y for Yamoto._ To her dread, she found what she was looking for. She found her own file.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Stalker-ish Enough?**

_Shadow Yamoto  
Age- 17  
Sex- female  
Date of birth- December 31, 11:59 P.M  
Height- 167.74 cm  
Weight- 67.59 kg  
Village- Konoha, Village Hidden in the Leaves  
Blood type- AB  
Marriages- None  
Children- None  
Religion- Unknown  
Occupation(s) - ex-Black Orchard Member, ex- ANBU member  
Family-  
Akiko Yamoto (fraternal twin sister)  
Kaya Yamoto- (mother)  
Kakashi Hatake (father)  
Ryumaru Yamoto (step- father, uncle)  
Riku Yamoto (Elder brother)  
Reina Yamoto (Elder sister)  
Kai Yamoto (younger step brother)  
Superiority- elements master, unusual amount of chakra, telekinesis, ect.  
A.K.A- Akahana  
_  
Shadow stared silently as the information sucked into her mind. _This information, or at least mine, must have been recorded just this year… Every village in the world must have something like this. Tabs on people from other countries and the Hokages have to share all information as precaution to dangers from other villages. But... Wait a minute... Why would the village give information on their own people? This would leave villages totally defenseless and vulnerable if enemy villages knew of weaknesses and abilities and I know that Konoha doesn't have something like this, or Sunagakure... Crap! If they have me then they must have... _

She stopped out of her reverie as she searched for the S section. Sasori.

_Sasori  
Age- 19  
Sex- male  
Date of birth- November 8  
Height- 172.72 cm  
Weight- 79.93 kg  
Village- Sunagakure, Village Hidden in the Sand  
Blood Type- AB  
Marriages- None  
Children- None  
Religion- Unknown  
Classification- S- class  
Occupation(s) - Unknown  
Family-  
Chiyo (paternal grandmother)  
Ebizo (paternal grandfather)  
Mother- Unknown  
Father- Unknown  
A.K.A- Akasuna no Sasori, Master Puppeteer of Sand  
Superiority(s) - Master of puppets, Poisons expert  
_  
_He doesn't have a last name? S-Class? How is that even-Crap! I need to get a rid of these. NOW! _

Shadow lit a small flame in her hand when she heard the faint sounds of footsteps echoing in the hallway. _I'm not going to be able to burn these. I'll have to leave them here for the rest of today and come back tomorrow. _She quietly put Sasori's back in its proper place just in time as two men came in. Thankfully she was able to cling to the top of the ceiling. Unfortunately... she had forgotten to put away her own file.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: My Fault How?**

As the two men walked into the room, Shadow recognized Li's perfect golden blond hair. He was with another man, a man with rather unruly hair that was a strange shade of brown, a brown that resembled a lot like mud.

"There's this chick at my mother's house that claims to be my mother's friend's daughter I think, but I don't ever really remember my mother doing anything to help another person besides serving them tea and refreshments at the hot springs."

"So, what, you're suspicious or something?" the man with him asked in a deep, rich voice that didn't really seem to match with anyone.

"Well, yes, but actually I don't mind her too much considering she has a nice face and body. You should really see her she is the most beautiful thing in the world."

Shadow gagged at that remark, her chibi talking her into jumping down and killing him then and there. _Come on, ya know you can take a two on one battle. I don't care if you get caught in the process, just so long I can kill him! _

"She must be pretty to catch your eyes I guess."

They were in the middle of the room when Li stopped to pick something up. "Huh? A folder? I don't seem to remember a folder lying around on the floor an hour ago."

"Maybe it was one of the others?" the mud haired man suggested. "Some of the newer guards are a lot less careful."

"Eh. Whatever, let's just see who's folder it is."

He was about to make it open when Shadow thought, _No! He can't see that! If he did this whole mission would be a wild goose chase! My cover name is too similar, damn Naruto, couldn't you think of something a little more creative? And my eyes... _

In a split second she gently blew on the papers from above the ceiling, controlling the air around them to make a breeze, and using telekinesis to turn the blower of the fan on one of the desk's making it go higher so that it looked as if the fan blew all the papers. She also opened one of the drawers of the Z section so that all the papers with people's last names that had Z in the beginning all blew out, mixing her paper with all the rest.

"What the hell?" Li cried protecting his head so that whipping papers all around wouldn't cut his fine hairs off. "How did this happen?" He looked up, but Shadow had already disappeared. She ran back to where Sasori was, quickly transforming back into the girl the guards had seen on their way in.

"Sasori, we need to leave."

"Why? What have you done this time." he asked lazily, not looking up and asking the question in more of a way that would count as a statement than a question.

"What did I-? What do you mean what did I do _now_?"

"I mean exactly what I said. What have you done this time?"

"Idiot..." She said quietly. "I'll tell you later I can't tell you now, not until we leave."

He sighed putting the book he was reading in his bag. "Fine. Let's go then. I guess my job is finished for the time being." Shadow looked behind her to make sure no one was following and they headed towards the exit.

They walked out quietly, both saying a quiet "Thank you" to the guards who were staring at the sky.

"So, what happened this time?" Sasori asked looking straight ahead and watching some children play ball in the road, as they sat down on a bench not too far from the Records Hall.

"I was looking around for some stuff to read," Shadow said also watching. "And I found this very thin passageway. I went through and it opened up to a door. I felt some strange vibrations and decided to check it out. When I got in I came to a room with screens showing just about every place in this village. I could see everyone and everything, almost. But... there were also files and the files, were files of people. They contained pictures of people and info, and not just people of this village. Their birth dates, age, specials, village, height, weight, family, jobs, everything was included. And I found the folders containing our information..."

She looked at him to see his reaction but he was watching the road up ahead, almost seeming as if he was ignoring her, but Shadow knew better.

"And...?" he inquired lazily.

"And I found our files. Yours and mine." She repeated more specifically this time, "I was going to get a rid of them, but I didn't have enough time. Li and a friend of his came in so I had to get out, and they were about to look at my file, since I didn't have enough time to put mine away. When I put the fan on high, I was only able to mix it in with another section. It's just..." She looked away, staring at a woman who was arranging her fruit stand. "They're... suspicious. Li is suspicious of our visit, _my_ visit," She corrected herself, "So, I think that, maybe... we should leave tomorrow night. Or maybe sooner if possible. Find the jutsu then leave ASAP. Even, with the extra wig and black contacts, they could find my picture and then find us."

Sasori sat silently looking again at the children playing in the street. "OK. I'm not done yet with what I've been looking for, but I have figured out a weakness of the Sound village ."

"What?"

"Sound's weakness may be a special silence jutsu I found, or possibly lightning since lightning makes virtually no sound without thunder and is very fast, faster than sound. But then again, it may already be fairly weak already since their leader, Orochimaru, has disappeared..." He stopped himself from wincing upon saying the other man's name and Shadow quirked an eyebrow up questioningly.

"So, basically as of now the only ones we should worry about is grass? Then we'll leave in a few nights, once the documents are destroyed."

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: I'm Going to Have to Kill You Now **

Shadow sighed as she looked out the window of her pink room. It was pouring out, and it was killing her because as much as she wanted to play, she couldn't because of the study sessions that had been arranged with Yura. She sighed again woefully and looked back down to the boring arrangement of books stacked beside her. Shadow rubbed her temples in aggravation. _Why the hell am I doing this? I should be outside getting soaked or even reading records in the record hall, even that would be more entertaining than this. _

Shadow leaned back and closed her eyes, remembering a certain memory from long ago.

* * *

_"Hey Sakura-Chan! Look, it's raining, wanna go out and play tag?" Naruto asked excitedly, shoving open the slide door of the classroom the group was meeting in._

"No way Naruto. Unlike you, I actually act my age." Sakura flipped her pink hair, which she had recently cut off during the Chunin exams to save her team. An admirable act that Shadow respected.

Naruto looked down, enthusiasm evaporating. Shadow looked up from a book she was reading, "Naruto", a well done masterpiece by Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sanin.

"I'll go with you Naruto." Shadow said.

"Really?"

"Sure. I actually like the rain; it's almost like purification for me." She pulled on a sweater and began to follow the hyper child out of the room. She looked back into the room at Sakura, who was staring out the window, dazed.

"You're worried about him aren't you? You're worried about Sasuke, right?"

"How did you-"

"I know these things Sakura. You're easy to read. And by the way, in case you haven't noticed, you've been zoning more times than I can count."

Sakura looked at the slightly younger kunoichi. "Well… Yeah, of course I am. Sasuke was… I mean, is, my first love. And I want him to notice that but…"

Shadow sighed as she thought of a response.

"Love…" She began slowly. "Is such a silly and unneeded emotion."

"What?"

"Girl swoons for boy. Girl worships boy. Girl loses boy. It all results in nothing."

"What… Are you talking about?"

"I'm saying." Shadow paused to stare Sakura right in the eyes. "That Sasuke will leave this village, and you will be heartbroken. He isn't the type to work with a lame group like us, and neither am I. Trust me, he'll leave us all to find someone stronger to teach him."

"That's not possible. I know Sasuke! He wouldn't leave us, we're a team, we stick together."

"If you believe in that, then you are a fool."

"Hey slowpokes!" Naruto yelled. "Are ya comin' or what?"

"Yeah!" Shadow called back. She grabbed a pink coat sitting on a nearby and threw at Sakura. It hit her lamely in the face as Shadow smiled and said, "Coming?" and she walked out of the room swiftly, joining Naruto in the pouring rain. The next day, all three ninja caught a cold, but they regretted nothing. 

* * *

Shadow was in a daze when she felt a cruel jab to her forehead. She jumped slightly as she looked up to see familiar brown eyes.

"What the hell?!" Shadow yelled. "What are you doing in here?"

Sasori sighed and in mock pain said, "I was just here to talk with you Shadow-Chan."

"Get out," Shadow commanded, practically destroying her sliding door leading to the hallway with the force she used.

Sasori rolled his eyes and said calmly, "I can't, or else they'll see me."

"Who?"

"Lord Kazekage himself and the whole of the village. You know, they came out all the way to see us here." Sasori said sarcastically.

Shadow sighed in impatience and she crossed her arms.

"Your employers of course. They don't know I'm here," Sasori finally clarified.

"Then how'd you get in?" she asked curiously.

"I flew in of course. Gods, you're spacey. You didn't see me walk in through the balcony? You were staring right at the door. Which reminds me, you should really learn to work a lock. Great for keeping intruders out."

Shadow sighed again in annoyance, "Why are you here?"

"Why not?" was Sasori's reply. "Actually, I came to ask you to try this new poison I made earlier today."

"P-poison?!" Shadow yelled in amazement, wondering if she really just heard her partner ask her to try a poison.

Sasori silenced her by using his chakra strings to force her own hand to cover her mouth.

"Shh!" he hissed. He listened quietly for any sounds of movement outside the room. Hearing none, Sasori relaxed, but did not take the hand away from Shadow's mouth.

"Well, it's not poison per say, more like a speed potion. The drinker will be able to increase their speed by three times every sniff… Though too many and the user could speed up his own heart, resulting in cardiac arrest." He pulled out a clear, pink spiral bottle with a strange murky substance inside.

He forced Shadow to sit across the table from him, and removed the hand covering her mouth so she could speak. Even with the freedom of speech, Shadow could still feel the compressed feeling of chakra strings wrapped around her body.

"Just try it."

"Is this some trick? Are you secretly trying to assassinate me or something?" Shadow asked, although the bottle had already been forced half way to her face.

Just as she unscrewed the cork a knock on Shadow's door interrupted the process. Shadow jumped to her feet and looked at the door.

"Yumi-chan? It's me, Yura. May I come in?"

"Uh… J-just a second!" Shadow called back.

She grabbed Sasori by the arm and began to shove him into the large wardrobe that sat across the bed.

"Get in!" She hissed.

"What if I don't want to?" he inquired lazily. "Women really can't make their minds up huh? First you tell me to get out and now you tell me to get in. Which is it anyways?"

"You moron! _You're_ the one who said they didn't know you were here!"

"They don't. And if she sees I'm here with you… Without her knowledge… And we're alone in your room together…" He trailed off; smirking when he saw Shadow's face turn a dark crimson when she realized what would probably come to mind to the unknowing Yura. Shadow shoved her annoying partner even harder.

"Shut up and get in the damned wardrobe, it'll only be a few minutes."

"More like a few minutes of my youth… Good bye! I'm sorry for wasting you so."

With a full shove from a telekinetic wave (summoned by Shadow) Sasori was pushed into the wardrobe successfully, and the door was closed just as Yura walked into the room.

"Oh Yumi-Chan, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were changing."

Shadow forced a relaxed smile to her face as she said, "Um… Yes! I'm sorry it took so long."

She pressed herself harder onto the doors of the giant wardrobe because she could feel Sasori pressing his shoulder into the door, trying equally as hard to open it. He knew full well of the consequences for Shadow if he were to be found.

"Oh, Yumi dear, are you alright? You're shaking. Are you sick?"

Small beads of perspiration slipped down Shadow's face as she shook with the effort of forcing the closet doors shut. Despite the fact that Shadow had never seen Sasori use taijutsu and his strength, it was obvious that he was stronger than her and if she wasn't careful, he'd be able to burst out of the wardrobe.

"O-oh… Yes, I-I'm just a little tired!" she said. She said the word "tired" a little more forceful than she intended to because she slammed her back onto the wardrobe doors. This seemed to jolt Sasori and made him fall back in the closet. Shadow sighed with relief.

_Good. _She thought. _Seems as if he's settled down. _

She looked up to see the startled face of Yura, who looked confused and a little frightened of the behavior Shadow was showing.

"U-um.. A cat."

"I'm sorry?"

"Yes! A cat. I uh… Found a stray cat wandering around earlier but it got rather frisky so I err… Put it in here to … Um… Calm down."

"Oh well, I do love kittens! May I see this one?" Yura asked, she blushed.

"No!" Shadow said, rather forcefully. Yura looked taken back and Shadow repeated herself in a calmer tone, "Um… Sorry… No this cat is… A bit of a beast really. A ferocious thing that had tried to gouge my eyes out earlier so um-"

"Oh… Okay dear… Well, anyways, I just came up to- Oh my goodness!"

Without warning Shadow's right arm shot up into the air and positioned itself into a salute. Shadow's eyes widened when she saw a flash of silver and blue wave out of the corner of her eye.

_Chakra strings?! Damn it Sasori, cut it out you thick headed bastard! _

"Um, uh, yes well ehrm… I guess I should be going. Uh, k-keep up the good work!" Yura turned around and began to walk out.

When her back was turned Shadow felt both of her middle fingers raise unconditionally. Without turning around Shadow kicked the flaps of the wardrobe and a satisfying thump resounded. She felt the chakra strings release her middle fingers and she sighed.

_I'm going to kill you. _Shadow though furiously. She turned to open the walk-in wardrobe when she heard Yura say, "Ooh! Is this a new perfume? It smells lovely."

Shadow turned back to Yura and was horrified to see Yura sniffing from the pink bottle Sasori had brought.

"Urk! Um, well yeah… I guess… So... heh…" Shadow said warily.

"Oh well, keep up with your studies!" Yura said cheerily as she walked out of the room and slid the door shut.

_No effect? _

Shadow walked back to the doors of the wardrobe and was about to open it when Sasori beat her to it, and slammed the doors open.

Sasori gasped for air as he said, "Never… Again… Will I go in that hell hole… No… Matter what…. It is you pay me…."

Shadow stared at him blankly for a few moments when she shouted equally as loud. "You bastard! You're right, no way in hell I'm allowing you in here again!"

Sasori sighed as he said, "Well… I did find this."

He held up one of her black laced bras, and Shadow blushed a deep red, as she lunged for it.

He dodged and nimbly landed in front of her in front of her bed. Sasori held the undergarment in front of him and commented, "Not very large are we? What are you an A? Or perhaps smaller. Perhaps I should begin calling you 'Pancake-chest' or 'Paper-thin'. Which sounds bet-"

He was interrupted when he felt a body tackle him and he landed on the bed. The younger girl pinned him to the bed as she reached for her underclothes. Sasori held it away at his arm length as Shadow tried desperately to grab back her bra.

"You… Damned pervert. Give... It back to me. Gods' damn it!" the kunoichi said through clenched teeth.

Sasori sighed as he said sarcastically. "Apparently little girls are both violent and flat chested. Great traits that every guy must go for. " He sighed tauntingly.

Shadow stretched across his body, straining her arms to stretch as far as they could.

"I... Swear to the gods'… Give me that damned bra, or I'll strangle you." Sasori looked back at the younger girl and was surprised to see how he never noticed how unusually attractive she was.

Long black hair cascaded in front of her, as she huffed irritably, reaching for her clothing. Sharp, determined blue eyes glared in determination and pale arms stretched to their limits.

Full pink lips were tugged into a deep frown and thin black eyebrows were furrowed in a deep concentration and her unusually large silver-ish charm on her black chocker dangled. The white beads surrounding it clicked gently against one another.

Sasori chuckled to himself and nodded his head in disgust with himself as he handed his flustered partner her garment. She snatched it, but kept Sasori pinned down.

"You… Bastard…" Shadow said in between breaths.

Sasori calmly breathed in her lavender and rose perfume, feeling accomplished for making his partner agitated.

He looked out the window leading to the balcony and was glad to see clear pale blue patches of sky peeking out of the grey clouds.

_The rain has cleared. _He thought. He allowed Shadow to calm her breathes when he rolled out from under her. Despite her special powers she was granted with, she was actually not very strong. She lacked strength, but he knew that she had agility to make up for her lacking muscles.

Shadow watched him warily, but did nothing to stop the young man from walking out onto the balcony.

"Well Doll," he called to her sarcastically, he sat on the fence out on the balcony. "I had fun." Cold water began to seep into the long sleeves of his robe, as he perched and prepared himself to jump off.

"And Sasori?" Shadow called warily. Shadow paused, then finally said, "Just for the record… I'm not A. I'm B."

Sasori laughed as he said, "Sure you are Doll." He jumped off the balcony and Shadow sighed. She let the after rain breeze fill the room and sighed again as she turned her back to the balcony, and went to sleep.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve- Past Mysteries**

"Yoink."

The small photo that Shadow held in her hands was pulled out of her grasp before her eyes. She looked up to see Sasori perching above her, inspecting the photo he had previously stolen.

"Give it back." She demanded. She put her hands on her hips impatiently, not even trying to grab the photo by force, as she had learned from their previous game of 'Steal-and-Keep'. She didn't exactly want a repeat of the last time she tried to get something back from Sasori. Shadow shuddered, a vein popping. After her nap she had gotten up and burned her bra to ash.

Sasori stood unmoving, still studying the photo when he finally said, "So, who's the girl you tried so hard to forget about?"

"What are you talking about? The photo is just faded."

"Liar. It's obvious that you've been over obsessively rubbing over that particular spot. So tell me, who is she?"

"Just a girl." Shadow replied impatiently. It was a very warm afternoon that day, and the weather was perfect. Shadow didn't want it ruined but obviously since Sasori was there, that dream shattered.

"Unless my eyes deceive me, which I doubt they are, she has red eyes and silver hair. The other girl is obviously you, big frown and all."

Shadow rolled her eyes, reaching to grab the picture and sighed in aggravation as Sasori pulled away. He jumped to the roof of her room and leaned on the lamp that hung there.

"And it looks like you haven't changed at all since this photo was taken, hm?"

"Shut up."

Sasori continued his observations, "So let's see…. This girl… She's about your height... Oh wait a minute… It looks like she's a reflection. How is that possible though? Her reflection doesn't look like you. And at second glance, it looks as if you're wearing something other than your usual get up. Something even more revealing than what you wear now I see. Were you in some sort of organization?"

"Black Orchard," Shadow replied warily. It was obvious that Sasori was there for answers.

"And who are they?"

"Some wannabe organization for loser, murderers, and psychopaths. "

"Hm… This photo is fairly recent looking. I'd guess you were… fifteen when it was taken?"

"Damn you."

"I guess you were." Sasori smiled as he threw the picture back at his partner. It floated gracefully in her hands and she shoved it in the back pocket of her black pants.

"So other than reminiscing of 'non-existent' people, what else have you been up to?" Sasori asked in a bored manner.

"What's it to you?" Shadow asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. I was just wondering. Do you have to act so suspicious around me all the time?"

"Yes."

Sasori chuckled. "Well, the main reason I came here was to ask whether you've ever heard of the name, 'Reiko'."

"No… Why?" She quirked an eyebrow up questioningly and he shrugged.

"Well, while I was in town I came across an odd girl who went by the name 'Reiko'. She had silver hair, and she was bombarding me with irrelevant questions on you… Several times I believe she was trying to kill me without my notice. Just wondering whether you knew anyone of the sort, as she seemed somewhat like you. Violent, I mean."

She rolled her eyes and ignored his insult as she thought, "Um… Not that I know of, though back home, I did have my own personal group of fan girls who followed me everywhere... It is possible one of them wandered around here…" Shadow placed a finger to her lips as she thought of any other possibilities.

"Mm… And you're the one who says I have an ego…"

"Hey! I never said that I set it up."

"Having your own fan group must be nice…"

"Shut up."

"You're too cruel."

"…" Shadow clenched her teeth as she tried not exploding.

"Oh, also, I wanted to give you this." Sasori threw a piece of paper that was crumpled up and it hit Shadow lamely in the forehead. Sasori snickered.

Shadow uncurled the paper and smoothed it out. "What is this?"

"A piece of paper."

"I know that dummy. I meant, what is it about?"

"You'll just have to read and see."

"You suck."

"Thank you brat. I love you too."

Shadow scowled as she began to skim through the paper. "Eh? What do amulets have to do with me?"

"Take a good guess."

"My necklace?"

"Yup. I researched on seals and necklaces, and the kanji written on yours resembles the one that said that it was used to seal demons."

"So?"

"So it seems that you're hiding some sort of power. I'd like to know what that power is. Are you a demon of some sort? Oh wait, scratch that out, you can barely stop me from breaking out of a wardrobe."

"Go to hell."

Sasori sighed and clutched the area where his heart would lay. "You meanie…" he sighed. He dropped his head as if he were about to cry, but there was a full smirk still visible on his face. "And here I thought you'd be happy to talk with me about your sorrows."

"What sorrows?"

"The ones you won't tell me about…" Sasori stood and jumped to the roof next door. He landed gracefully as he made a salute and called, "Well, I guess I'll be off then."

"Good riddance!" Shadow yelled back. She huffed. _What was that all about? _She thought to herself.

_It's a definite. _Sasori thought, as he entered his room. _She's hiding some sort of power… And it has to have a connection with the girl I saw in her photo. _

He grabbed the scroll that lay uncurled on his desk and re-read the passage that had a picture of a blood red necklace.

_What could it be? _He wondered.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen- Rejuvenation, Relaxation, and… Puppets?!**

"Ah, Yumi-Chan!"

"Oh, Yura-san… Hello." Shadow smiled as she turned to face the other woman.

It was just another day of studies and Shadow was taking a break. She felt that if she didn't, she'd go insane after studying a subject she wouldn't even care about under normal circumstances.

"Just as a reminder, tonight is the annual family ceremony, so if you want, use this pass to get into the hot springs." Yura handed the other girl a wooden token, kanji written on the front and back.

Yura winked and said, "It isn't necessarily good for just one use either." And she walked off, humming to herself and obviously proud of her good deed.

Shadow looked at the ticket and smiled to herself. _Sounds nice… I haven't actually visited yet either, so this might be worthwhile. _ Shadow walked back to her room and collected her bag of clothes.

After the thousandth time of searching, Shadow had given up on looking for her lost hairpins, and as substitutions she had been transforming leaves and feathers to look like crude imitations of the original family crest.

Shadow grabbed her hairbrush, and light, almost dull, blue kimono and headed to the family spa center.

* * *

The reception room was marvelous. Jade columns held up different shades of green stained glass ceiling and green marble tiles were separated by tiny white pearls on the floor. Large portraits of beautiful ladies and handsome men lined the walls, each looking even more elegant than the last, and gold frames held each portrait.

As soon as shadow stepped foot on the spotless floor, a maid took her pass and whisked her to the area where customers got their feet scrubbed and legs were covered in a soothing, homemade lotion. Then Shadow was led to the mud bath room. She was told that the mud was like a soothing remedy that would smooth her skin and rid her of blemishes. Shadow passed on the offer and was then led to the steam house. She told the maids that she would prefer to be alone and since no one else was in the area, she got her wish.

Shadow sat in the room quietly soaking in the heat and steam as she thought about recent events, when she heard the door of the room opened and a couple walked in talking to each other.

"And she looks at me and asks-"

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Shadow cried.

Red hair, heavily lidded brown eyes, and an annoyingly calm voice. It all led up to one evil, and one evil only.

Sasori.

Through the steam that was quickly evaporating, Shadow was able to make out his face as she said, "Get out."

"Excuse me?" Sasori asked politely. "Do I know you?"

"Cut the crap Sasori. What the hell are you doing here?"

Sasori sighed and said calmly, "I'm here accompanying the lovely Lillian-chan. I'm her escort. Lillian-chan, this is my younger and, stupider partner, Yumi Yumeka."

A young girl around the age of 18 appeared through the steam and looked at Shadow curiously. Long, light purple hair that was braided cascaded down her back and matching, innocent purple eyes peered at Shadow. "H-hello," She said shyly. "M-my name is Lillian. N-nice to meet you." She outstretched a small pale hand to Shadow, which was ignored. Shadow only had eyes for Sasori at the moment.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Sasori sighed again, slightly impatient, "Do you bother listening to me at all? I swear, whatever I say to you goes in one ear and out the other."

"And?"

Sasori sighed again and repeated himself, "I'm here on business to escort Miss Lillian. Got a problem with that? Talk to my boss." And with that he plopped himself on a wooden bench and stretched out his long arms along the tops of the other benches. Lillian joined him and Shadow sat across, glaring at the red head.

An uncomfortable and overwhelming silence passed between the two and Lillian tried to break it but with several failed attempts to make light conversation, she gave up.

After what seemed like decades of sitting through an unsettled silence, Shadow stood up and said, "Well, it was nice meeting you Lillian, but if you excuse me, I think I will go visit the hot springs now."

"Oh! Good idea!" Lillian cheered enthusiastically. "May I join?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Then I might as well join too." Sasori said, standing up as well.

"What are you talking about? The hot springs are separated by gender."

"I know. What did you think I was gonna do? Hang out on the women's side like a five year old?" Sasori asked sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and left the steam room. "I wouldn't want to see you of all people naked, even if you paid me too." He laughed.

Shadow ground her teeth in aggravation, steam pouring from her head as she blushed, and walked out with Lillian.

* * *

"Um... Sasori-san? Are you okay?" Lillian called to Sasori from their side of the hot springs. Another silence had settled between the small group as Lillian lightly knocked on the wood fence that separated the hot spring.

Silence replied Lillian and Shadow sighed as she waded over to Lillian and called, "Oi! Sasori! You drowning over there or what?"

"Ooh, I do hope he's okay!" Lillian said worriedly.

"Meh, don't worry. He may have a thick head, but he can float." Shadow said uncaringly.

"Oh okay…" Lillian was silent, then turned to look at Shadow. Innocence drained from her eyes as she spoke in a lame, almost monotone voice she said, "Okay girl. Listen and listen good because I'm only gonna say this once. Sasori-san is here to protect me and me alone. Friend or not, you shouldn't be involved with him. Don't go messing where you shouldn't be." She jabbed Shadow in the chest and Shadow winced slightly.

_Bitch! _Shadow's inner side screeched.

_Eh? Where the hell have you been? _Shadow asked her.

_Dormant okay?! So shut up and kick this bitch's ass. Hard. _

Shadow smiled sweetly to Lillian, grabbed her by the wrist and pushed her under the water.

* * *

The two girls tossed and turned in the unusually deep hot spring, and somehow to Shadow's dismay she was the one who ended up under the water. She struggled to reach for the surface but the surprisingly weak look Lillian had an inner strength that held Shadow under.

Although it was muffled and sounded like she was gurgling, Shadow could hear Lillian's cry, "Eek! Sasori-san! Yumi-chan fainted and I can't pull her up!"

_Air! _Shadow's mind yelled. She shut her eyes tightly. She felt Lillian stop holding her down and halfheartedly try and pull her up. Shadow was too weak to swim up herself when she heard a shout of "That damned idiot!" and a splash of water.

_My body… Feels so heavy… I've gone numb… Is this… What it feels like to… Die? _

She could feel stronger arms begin to pull her to the rocks and force her out of the water onto dry land. She opened her eyes weakly to see a brown pair of eyes peer awfully close to her.

_Sasori…? _

Shadow then blacked out.

* * *

"Yumi-Chan?" the voice came to Shadow's ears, but they sounded distant… Transparent, almost as if someone were calling to her from another side of a cliff. "Yumi-Chan? Yumi-chan! Are you alright?"

Shadow bolted up and coughed up water, she clutched her chest as pain settled and it felt as if it were clenching her heart. Someone patted her back comfortingly as she spit out more water. A white wash cloth slipped off her forehead and fell onto the covers of the makeshift bed that had been made of towels.

"Oh thank goodness… Yumi-Chan, you've come back. I was so worried." Shadow looked into the face of Lillian, innocence shining through her eyes again.

_Sure you are. Since you're the one who almost killed me! _

Shadow wanted desperately to say these words, but her throat was burning and she felt dizzy when she tried to stand up and choke the other girl. Lillian pushed her back down and Shadow didn't resist.

"It was a good thing that Sasori-san knew CPR, he was able to save you." She looked admiringly at Sasori who was sitting in a corner, arms crossed over a simple blue yukata.

If Shadow hadn't been in her present condition, she would've slapped her hands over her mouth, and spit on the ground. _He used… The mouth to mouth… That… Bastard…! _Shadow said warily. She coughed again, and then turned her back to the Sasori and Lillian.

"Lillian-chan?" She croaked out.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind…? Leaving the room for a couple of minutes? I need to speak..." she began to cough violently, water still trying to exit from her throat.

"Oh, yes of course. I'll be back in a few minutes. Actually, I was going to go get some hot water bottles for you anyways." Lillian stood and left the room, closing the sliding door behind her.

Sasori and Shadow both sat quietly together.

"Thank you." Shadow managed to croak.

"Sorry? I didn't quite hear that." Sasori said.

Shadow popped a vein, she knew full well that he heard, but wanted to rub it in her face.

"I said."

"Yes?"

"Thank. You." She said, through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, one more time. I think I still have some water in my ear from saving you, so my hearing's not so great right now," Sasori said almost in a sing song voice.

Shadow jumped from her seat as she jabbed violently at him and said, "I said thank you, you damned Puppet Master! Urk!" Shadow turned as she threw up in a bucket that had been left near her temporary bed.

Her back was turned to Sasori, but she could feel his gaze on her.

"You're welcome, brat." She looked back to face him and she was surprised to see him behind her draping a warm blanket around her shoulders. "Just be more careful." He said, actual concern hinted in his tone.

"Sasori…" Before Shadow realized it, she was already half way closer to Sasori's face. An inch away, the sliding door slammed open and the two jumped back.

"Here Yumi-Chan! I brought you these hot water bottles, I hope they help," Lillian said brightly.

"Thank you, I think my throat is actually feeling much better now."

"That's good, now why don't you get some rest?"

Shadow lay back down and smiled weakly, "Thank you… Lillian-chan."

_Don't let your guard down. _Shadow's inner side said evilly, _ I'll be getting you back some time. _

And Shadow fell asleep.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The Dance **

Shadow awoke several hours later to the familiar red walls of her room at Yura's house. _How did I…? _

Shadow thought in confusion. She sat up in bed and looked at the clock on her nightstand. Instead of seeing the digital numbers staring back at her, a white card stood. Shadow picked it up and opened it, then read in a semi messy scrawl:

_Brat,  
After burdening me with the task of saving your life, I brought you back home. Be grateful. By the way, this never happened. Got it?  
Sasori  
P.S Thought you might need this tonight. Don't forget it. _

Shadow rolled her eyes, which then widened when a familiar green and black dragonfly hair pin with chopsticks fell from the back of the note. _That… That bastard! So he had it the whole time?! Why I ought a… _She looked at the clock on her bed side table which read: _6:30 P.M? Uh-oh... The dance! I need to get down stairs pronto! _

Shadow then jumped out of bed, shoved on her green and gold kimono, quickly brushed her hair into a presentable hairstyle, thrust on the hair accessories, black lens, and geta on her feet, then rushed down the stairs and out the door of the house. She grabbed her large paper fan to carry behind her and as she turned to slide the door shut when a tan hand appeared and stopped her. A young, unmistakably tan man grinned at Shadow.

"Ah, Miss Yumi, are you leaving for the party?" It was Li, and he was wearing a large golden hakama that was loosely tied by a black obi. He too, wore geta with gold bands. He flashed his perfectly white teeth at Shadow and asked, "May I accompany you?"

"Oh, yes. You may." Shadow said, back to the mimicked voice of an innocent girl.

They walked silently together, walking down the crowded street towards the main hall. The main hall was a large building with marble columns outside and was normally rented for parties and ceremonies. It had a high ceiling and was a large circular room with small coat rooms leading from the side.

A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, lighting every inch of the room, and people were found all over chattering enthusiastically and eating cake or soba. When they got in Shadow was overwhelmed by the vibrations given off by every person, and a small headache was forming in the back of her head.

She felt a tug on her sleeve and saw Li ahead of her, who had motioned for her to follow him. Shadow pushed and shoved as she made her way to follow the practically shining head of Li. She swore it was like a disco ball.

When Shadow finally reached him she was panting, and Li leaned on the frame of a doorway leading outside into an orchard. He extended his hand to her, and she took it, allowing him to pull her gently outside through the trail of sakura trees. Sakura petals were floating all over, and gentle glows from small candles lit the pathway. Shadow was amazed by the beauty of everything. A full moon peeked from behind a marble wall, and glinted off a small pond with koi fish swimming happily around in circles, almost as if they were chasing each other and playing some sort of game. Sakura petals floated gently on the water's surface, and high grasses grew on the banks of the pond.

Li led her to the bench that sat near the pond and they sat together quietly, watching the fish swim quietly.

"It's beautiful." Shadow said in awe. "I'm surprised I didn't come here before."

"Well, you probably wouldn't be allowed permission in here anyways, since this is only allowed for people who've paid for admission." Li laughed. "I brought you so you could see the beauty. Since this will probably be your last night…" He trailed off, staring off into the sky.

"Huh? Excuse me? What are you talking about? My last night…?"

"Oh well you see-"

Li was interrupted when a shrill shriek of joy erupted behind them; the two stood up and turned around to see Lillian and Sasori, who were walking towards them. "Yumi-Chan!" Lillian cried happily. "I didn't know you would be here!"

"Ah, Lillian-san, Sasori-San... Hello. What are you two doing here?"

"We're here because we were invited silly!"

"Cousin Lillian!" Li said happily "It's so good to see you! I haven't spoken to you in ages! So I see you've met the lovely Miss Yumi?"

"Oh yes, we've met. Actually, Sasori-san introduced us at your mother's hot springs." Lillian smiled. Shadow saw that she too was wearing an elegant kimono with sakura print but despite the elegance it was very thin and the shape of underclothes could be seen. From what she could also see in the flickering light of the candle, she was carrying a matching pink and gold umbrella, but unlike Shadow Lillian had kept her hair down and had tied it carelessly, in a loose ponytail that reached to about her hips.

She looked to her side and in surprise saw that Sasori too was wearing a very big hakama, one that almost seemed too big for him, but none the less covered. It was neat, but at one glance one could tell that Sasori hadn't taken his time to prepare it. He stood with an air of arrogance, as if the world was beneath him, and Shadow was feeling the need strangled him, and wipe that smug smirk right off his annoying face.

"Oh really? I see." Faint music could be heard being played inside and Li took Shadow's hand and asked, "Why don't we go inside and dance? It'll be fun."

Without Shadow's consent he began to lead her back inside, and the other two followed, Lillian chattering happily.

Inside swift, upbeat music was playing and couples were dancing happily. People laughed and sang and danced along to the music having a grand old time without a care in the world. Nothing could hurt them at that moment, and nothing could dampen their moods.

* * *

After what seemed a life time of dancing with Li, Shadow had been able to escape his clutches by lying and telling him that she had to use the ladies' room. Instead, once Li was out of sight Shadow wandered around the edges of the enormous room. She counted the huge windows lining the ceiling; the portraits of rich sponsors, how many ladies wore kimonos with print, anything that kept her preoccupied from joining "His-Royal-Haughtiness" as Shadow's inner side put it.

Just as Shadow was wondering what to count next, she passed a coat room and just barely got passed it when a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.

"What the-!" A hand covered her mouth and a voice whispered in her ear,

"Shh! Be quiet!" a light overhead was turned on and the hand let go of Shadow's mouth. She turned to see Sasori.

"Yes, Your Majesty? What is it you wish?" she asked sarcastically.

"I was able to get some extra information out of Lillian, and it turns out that her family had been holding onto some important scrolls. While she was away I was able to read a few, and it turns out that they've figured out a jutsu that can bring back the dead for a short period of time. An apparition of the dead soul."

"Interesting." Shadow said, though in reality, she wasn't interested with eternal life. All her life all she ever wanted to do was rest in peace for eternity. It was obvious that Sasori wanted the opposite, because to him eternal life meant eternal beauty. Life was short, but with something like these jutsus mixed with his own, shinobi would be able to expand it and with special care, live for an eternity.

"You seem uninterested. Wouldn't you like to live forever?" Sasori asked interested.

"I am. Uninterested, that is. Life is full of horrors, too many for one to handle. And that's just in a lifetime, with an extended life, it would only bring more."

"But with an extended life, things could change, even when you're on the brink of death, you'll be able to escape it. And that's the beauty of it." Sasori argued.

"You can't escape the inevitable." Shadow said monotonously.

Suddenly the door was flung open, and Shadow and Sasori came crashing out.

"Eh? Yumi-chan? Sasori-san? What are you two doing?" Lillian asked, her sickly sweet voice high and almost timid.

"Oh w-well you see-" Shadow began nervously, blushing because she had been caught. In a closet. With Sasori.

"Nothing really, just talking," Sasori said coolly, brushing off dust.

"Well, I need to speak with Yumi-chan." Lillian said, pulling Shadow to her feet and guiding her through the crowd. They stood in the line for refreshments, holding small china cups of tea, Shadow waited for Lillian's nasty speech of how she should stay away.

"And what were you two do-"

"We were talking. Just as Sasori said." Shadow said in a flat voice.

"And? Do you really think I'll be naïve enough just to take that? I mean, come on, a young woman with a guy in a closet for gods' sake." Lillian said.

Shadow began to giggle uncontrollably when she realized something. Silent peals of laughter turned to loud laughing that began to attract many peoples' attention.

"What's so funny?" Lillian asked suspiciously.

Shadow calmed herself down a little when she said, "Is… It me… Or am I beginning to sense something nasty arising from the lovely Lillian-chan?"

"Like what?"

"I'm beginning to suspect…"

"Yes?"

"That you're jealous. But honestly there's nothing to be jealous-"

Gasps emanated from the crowd when they heard the sick sound of a slap of skin from the refreshment table. They all turned to see Shadow and Lillian standing together in dramatic silence. Shadow's face was turned to the right, looking somewhat amused at the crowd, her left cheek stinging bitterly. She smiled as she felt anger rise from Lillian.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing." Lillian said in a low voice. It was thick with anger and a deep resentment.

Shadow laughed out loud, unafraid to hide the self-satisfaction in her voice she said, "I believe you just proved it yourself."

She looked at Lillian with mockery and Lillian raised her hand again to slap her, when cold water splashed upon her head. Everyone looked to see that a young man with red hair had poured a cold pitcher of water on the young lady's head. Lemon wedges sopped onto her hair and Shadow couldn't hold back a laugh when she saw Sasori calmly placing the empty pitcher on the table, and inspected his nails.

"S-Sasori-san." Lillian said, awestruck at his behavior.

"It seemed you needed to cool down." He said sarcastically, a self-satisfied smirk gracing his lips.

"B-but, why?" Lillian asked, small tears bubbling in the corners of her eyes.

"My dear," he said calmly, standing above her and tucking in a wet strand of purple hair behind her ears then wiping tears away. "I'm afraid you are no longer in need of my services, no one is out to harm you, it's more like my partner is the one in need of a body guard." He laughed, and Lillian slapped his hand away as she ran through the crowd. Her kimono was soaked at the top, and because it was so thin it was almost see through.

Sasori smiled charmingly at the crowd as he said coolly, "You may continue through the activities ladies and gentleman, I believe it's all over." He held out a hand to Shadow, taking hers without an answer, and began to pull her through the crowd to the door.

The crowd went back to a steady murmur, then grew into the happy chatters again as Shadow and Sasori walked down the cobblestone road towards Shadow's temporary home.

The two were silent for a long way down the road until Sasori asked, "Are you okay? It sounded like she hit you pretty hard."

"I'm fine. I'm more worried for Lillian than myself, I don't mind if I'm looked down upon in this stupid village, unlike her…"

Sasori laughed and they walked in a comfortable silence until they reached the doors of the client's home.

"Sasori, why did you-"

"Because I felt like it." Sasori interrupted, shrugging his shoulders carelessly. In the soft glow of light shining through the paper folds of the window in the house, Shadow could see Sasori smiling faintly.

"Well, I believe I'll take my leave now." Shadow said warily, looking towards the house to see if Yura were spying on them. She hadn't gone to the dance like everyone else because she hadn't been feeling well, though Shadow suspected it was because she wanted to leave her alone with Li.

Shadow began to break away when Sasori held her back. She looked up as Sasori who cupped her chin and turned her face to look at the cheek that had been slapped. It still stung, but not as badly as it had before. He leaned down and gently placed smooth lips on it, as if he could heal it instantly. Shadow blushed as he patted her shoulder silently, and began to walk down the road again.

The doors of the house slid open, revealing Yura as she said, "Oh, Yumi-chan! Where's Li?"

"He's back at-"

"Oh my goodness! My dear, what happened to your cheek? There's a giant welt!"

"Oh, um, well-"

"Come on in dear, I'll put some ointment on it." Yura dragged Shadow into the house and began to talk nonstop as she smeared on greenish oil onto Shadow's left cheek.

But Shadow didn't hear a word of it, because her mind was still thinking about how Sasori had said good-bye. Her heart fluttered with something unusual, something Shadow hadn't felt in a long time.

Shadow was in love.

* * *

The faint sounds of a little girl singing out the tune of a song came to Shadow's ears echoing and bouncing off the walls that suddenly surrounded her. She stood up, curious.

"That song…" She murmured to herself. "It's so… Familiar…"

She stood alone in a dark hallway; there was no light at all. Shadow reached to her side and felt the cold smoothness of a wall. It was damp, and the passage smelled musty, almost as if it were over hundreds of years old. But something inside the kunoichi told her that it wasn't any older than a few years.

She walked forward, as she trailed her hand along the wall, unknowing of where it leads. She heard the haunting song again, this time closer, and up ahead she could see the faint flickering of a flame inside a room with its door only half open. The strong smell of cleaning supplies and chlorine reached her nose, and with the other hand Shadow pinched it, for it was overbearing.

When she got to the oak door she hesitated, listening again to the hauntingly familiar song. Each la was sung at higher note, and then started over again. The second time through near the end it got lower and ended with almost a despairing note. Even without words, Shadow could feel the overwhelming sadness of the singer. It was depressing, and Shadow's heart ached.

She reached out and pushed the door open. From inside the doorway, she saw a young girl sitting in a corner, her back turned, and she was drawing on the walls with what looked eerily like blood. Without a face Shadow couldn't understand who it was, but she felt a familiarity with the young girl. There was a chain locked around her right ankle, chaining her to the wall across the room, and the girl wore nothing but tattered rags that barley covered her pale back. Her skin looked clammy and irritated, and there were cuts all over her back as if she had been whipped senselessly and mercilessly. She was sitting in seiza, the traditional form of sitting in Japan, and her feet supported her bottom were covered in grime and blisters. Her black hair was oily and had a ragged look to it, as if someone had cut it clean through without care.

Shadow looked up at the wall to see what the girl was drawing, hearing the melancholic notes exit from her mouth again.

What she saw disturbed her and Shadow thought she was about to be sick. The blood was part of the problem, because it dripped and slid slowly to the ground, staining the washed walls but it was of who it was that really disturbed her.

A picture of a woman with striking red eyes and slits for pupils was forming in the picture that was currently being worked on. Along the other walls were the same pictures and the words, "Who is she?" was written, also with blood. There were other pictures as well, pictures of a young man, another young woman, and a woman that Shadow could just barely make out as her mother. Nearer to the top there was a picture of a girl with a sword being thrust into her stomach, blood was illustrated to be spurting out and something was drawn on the sword, making it look as if it were coated in poison. _How morbid. _Shadow thought, clutching her heart, _who is she?! _

She took a few steps closer to the small, fragile looking body, and reached her hand out. Almost afraid of what she would see. She placed the hand on the girl's shoulder and held it there hesitatingly. The girl did nothing, and continued on as if she felt nothing.

"_Gomi_," came a deep voice behind them. Shadow whipped around to see a tall man with rich red and black robes standing in the door way. Gold piercing eyes gazed at the small girl in disgust and Shadow's eyes widened as she recognized him.

_Ryumaru. That bastard. Now I remember, that's the name he always called me when Mother wasn't around. Trash. That's what he meant. _The girl stopped drawing on the wall and Shadow could feel hate emanate from the small body. Hate flowed throughout the entire room, and Shadow was afraid that the room would burst from containing so much hatred.

"Yes, Father." The girl said, her voice was weak and sounded cracked, but defiance hung on every syllable.

"Stand up girl." The man commanded, his hand were hidden in his large sleeves, and Shadow shuddered, remembering the pain he had done to her. "And stand against the wall."

_It all makes sense now. _Shadow thought bitterly. _I'm seeing myself as a little girl and dear old "papa" is here to slap some "sense" into me. That bastard. _Shadow cringed, unconsciously rubbing her arms, remembering how she had tried hard to heal herself, but the damage was already past help. It had taken years for her to get a rid of all the scars visible, and she still hosted many of them on her back. Thankfully though, Sakura was a stronger healer and was able to finish the job.

"No." Came the defiant reply. Hatred filled the room, and it was mixed with sadness and pain and despair as well. "I am not your puppet."

"Excuse me?"

"I said, I am not your puppet. And I never shall be. Soon I will become strong enough and take you down. You lowlife scum." The younger Shadow spit at the man's feet and her eyes mocked him, anger and rebelliousness taking over her entire form.

Ryumaru was silent, then slowly advanced to her. At this Shadow stepped between them and held her arms out wide, as if protecting her younger self.

"Stay back." She hissed.

But Ryumaru walked through her as if she weren't there and Shadow's heart leapt with fear as she heard the sickening sounds of skin being slapped and beaten up. Shadow turned and felt helpless as she felt her younger self's pain of being whipped. The rebellious feeling had faded away and was replaced with fear as she felt the stinging pains of a chakra whip slashing her. Anger was strengthening and the present Shadow shut her eyes tightly and covered her ears.

"Stop." She said weakly, as if just by saying it, the torment would cease. "Stop it!" she said again, this time louder. She snapped her eyes open, feeling the hate consume her, as she shouted with rage, "STOP IT."

She threw the covers off her and sat up quickly, a cold sweat pouring down her forehead. Shadow looked around in confusion when she saw a dark room around her. She looked out the window to see a quarter moon pouring its silvery light into the room.

_Just… A dream… _She thought, relief filling her. _It's no longer like that anymore. Because if that... That bastard! Ever comes near me, I'll kill him. Yes. I'm stronger now… Stronger than before… _She reassured herself, taking deep breaths to calm her beating heart.

The echoing of Shadow's younger self singing brokenly seemed to be bouncing in her ears. She took another deep breath, and in a shaky voice she repeated the song, finishing the second part. Replacing the la's with something like ha, the song truly made a depressing impact on the silent room. As if answering her, the song continued to play in her mind.

* * *

Edited: August 7, 2012


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen: Life Must REALLY Hate Me**

_What's going on! This smell... it smells like... INGU POISON! _Shadow woke up instantly, grabbing her bag and opening up the window; then jumping out onto the balcony. It was late at night, and a half moon stood by itself in the night sky.

Shadow panted, "So... You were suspicious of who we were! Show yourself jackass, I know you're there!" she yelled into the poison cloud. Out came a head of golden hair with a mask on. The kunoichi tried to create a water whip and use it on the man, but the poison had already been spreading. _Damn, I hate this stuff. This poison is extremely rare, expensive and only grows in certain conditions, so how did he manage to get it? _

The poison, Ingu Poison, as it was called, was a special poison used on prisoners in special prisons, and cancelled off all chakra, blocking it and also had the same effect on Shadow's ki. It usually lasted for an hour or two but really depended on how much was taken in.

"Oh yes. Actually, I suspected you from the very beginning. My mother would never walk in to an alley even if her life depended on it so how could your mother save her if she never went in? And I don't know many girls who would even dare get the idea of learning about working to please other people in a spa for the gods' sake." He smirked as he created shadow clones, though his voice was slightly muffled. "What will you do now? There's one of you and about 100 of me," mocked Li his voice doubling by the word and ten shadow clones charged at Shadow.

A puppet flew in slicing through a couple of the shadow clones and the ten that came after before returning to its source. As it settled again on Sasori's shoulders as he smirked and said in his lazy way, "Make that about three at least."

"Fine then!" Li screamed. "I can take you all down myself!"

Sasori jumped down from the roof and landed beside Shadow and asked simply, "Tag team?"

"Sure why not, I have first move though," she said watching him. He shrugged. Shadow pulled out her twin fans from the bag at her side and ran at a random Li. It jumped over her swing but Sasori's puppet came and knocked it out over the air.

"One down, it was a fake though," Shadow said using a fan as a shield against punches from five shadow clones, slicing them in return.

"Don't worry about them, just find the real one." Sasori said coolly dodging all attacks searching for the one that was farthest in the back of the mob.

Shadow stopped and pounded a foot on the roof, feeling the vibrations, and after a little more searching, and many dodges in multiple directions, she was able to find a body that seemed like it was standing calmly behind the whole crowd watching.

She dodged all the attacks, heading for it. She was about to swing her fan at Li, but was interrupted by a dart that had launched itself into her right wrist. She dropped her weapon, feeling the effects of the sleeping poison immediately.

She fell to the ground hearing the dull thud of wood fall down behind her, knowing that it was Sasori and his puppet too, also drugged with the sickly sweet smelling gas. She slipped away into unconsciousness right after she heard the snickering of Li. "So... You underestimated me just like all the others. Not surprising. Most people wouldn't expect someone with my looks to be able to fight. How unpleasant for you two."

_Dammit! How could I let him get me? _Shadow thought furiously. _Ugh, he was right! I really did underestimate him! _

* * *

Shadow had awoken behind wooden bars, which were in a criss-cross pattern, and were elevated above ground. Instead of her black boots and blue uniform, she wore a grey-ish dress that was more or less an oversized shirt, or possibly the guards' sick idea of a dress for a tramp. She watched the black beads click together on her right ankle, remembering when she had begun to wear them, and then she toyed with the red beads strung onto her left wrist. The red bracelet was usually hidden by the black wristbands Shadow usually wore, but they too had been confiscated. Shadow felt naked without her bag, and without her regular uniform. It had been awhile since she had to look at the charms she wore, and it sickened her.

She had thought of several ideas of escape but then remembered that her bag was in another room, she was too high up away from the earth (only about three feet really,) if she used fire she would burn herself, there was no water around; the air pressure was too low to use, and to keep herself alive, she had to drink at least a sip of the water the guards gave daily even though it was obvious that it had contained Ingu poison, given away by the fact of the murky color to it.

After she figured out that poison would be added to her food and water, she had even given up drinking and hadn't had much for at least a day. She had given up on food the first time her eyes laid sight on the moldy bread; the burnt rice and what looked to be oatmeal but looked more like maggots.

Next to her was Sasori, in a metal cage, not eating the food, but drinking the water at least. He sat in the farthest corner from her and made subtle movements with his right hand, curling and uncurling his fingers as if trying to summon chakra, even with the knowledge that it would be impossible to do in that sort of environment.

The whole room was filled with the smell of Ingu poison. They were in their own cells inside the village prison, way below surface obviously. From what Shadow remembered when she came to, they were pulled down several flights of stairs with guards flocking at every possible exit. They were placed in the lowest floor of the whole stupid place, always hearing the moans of other prisoners whose cells were about six feet apart.

Thankfully the shinobi's cells were together so in their brief moments of silence they could speak to each other.

_Ugh. I totally screwed up on this. _Shadow thought staring blankly at the wooden bars. _Damn… _She got up and began pacing in what little space there was in her cell Sasori watched her quietly.

She stopped to look at him for a brief moment, sending a small smile to him then furrowing thin eyebrows concentrating on a way out. She promised to stop drinking and eating the meals given and decided she'd rather just starve to death.

It had been a week, (or maybe it was only a few days? Shadow had lost count and since there were no windows where they were kept, she couldn't follow the moon or sun patterns) since they were captured.

She was sick and tired of being there. She hated it. She hated seeing the arrogant faces of the guards who taunted her when they came to check up. She was tired of being in a room where all male prisoners were being kept. She was tired of hearing their wolf whistles when the guards chained her up and took her out of the room to interrogate her. She was tired of listening to all the moans and groans of the prisoners and smelling the sickly sweet smelling air and she was definitely, absolutely, positively, 100 percent tired of being watched at by Sasori, 24/7.

She wiped her forehead, feeling the moisture of sweat from pacing for so long. She stared at it, when she got the most brilliant idea in a while. She had given up eating and drinking as little as possible for at least a day, so there wasn't enough Ingu Poison to fill her systems, and she had found a way out of breathing the air more than necessary by ripping off a small piece of her already extremely short skirt and tying it around her nose. She took another deep breath of her skirt, still smelling weakly of the small dose of perfume she had been able to spill onto the dress, and it smelled faintly of roses and lavender, and the girl began running back and forth in her cage.

Sasori watched her curiously, a smirk beginning the form as he tried to figure out what the heck his ignorant partner was doing exactly. "And you're doing this because..." he trailed off, a full smirk definitely on his face.

She said, "If I'm able to raise my body heat even by a few degrees, I'll be able to heat my foot up and weaken the wood, thereby breaking it!"

She stopped and raised her hands at her sides, then pushing them down and standing straight. She then turned her attention towards the wooden bars, and kicked her foot as hard as possible at it. Her foot was able to break through, and she then began to pull the wood apart until finally, she was able to escape.

* * *

A/N: Well! Thank you everyone that sent me PMs and comments on deviantart asking me to continue this series here on fanfiction net. I finally got the motivation to edit the next chapter and post it, so here it is. ^^

I guess I should really start editing the next chapters and hurry up and finish the series, huh? ^^; Ah... I'll try... Gah, this is so difficult. I started this series in junior high, so it's really painful for me to read now because I've improved so much more now. :/

Eh... Never mind, anyways, I'll try the next few chapters and get them up soon.

Thanks again for encouraging me to continue; I love you all! .

- Jackal

(I've also noticed that I've never written "Author's notes" for this series until now. I wonder why? D: I think I was just too lazy...)


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: I HATE Flashbacks**

Shadow climbed out and she rubbed her arms as goose bumps appeared. She shivered as she felt her body heat drop back to normal. _Great, there goes all of my ki. _

She looked at Sasori who sat watching her quietly and she said, "I ran out of ki so I'll need to come back with the jail keys okay? It shouldn't take too long."

He nodded and watched as she quietly ran past the other bars while the prisoners were turned around, they had given up on watching the guards and had either started staring at the wall, went to sleep, or started to play the game "Cockroaches" which they had made up and told the two that to play the game all they had to do was try to kill as many cockroaches as possible in a made up period of time.

Shadow rushed to the end of the hallway and quickly eased the door open. She peeked in and felt the vibrations. _No one's here, why? _She thought suspiciously.

She walked in slowly looking around. _Nothing. Weird. You would think that there would be at least two guards around to make sure things are all right. _She walked around the room taking off her skirt/ mask, looking at the table where cards had been strewn as if in a rush, mugs of coffee and bowls of food were left empty and dirty in the tiny sink.

Shadow looked in the fridge and to her disgust she found the ingredients that were used to make the prisoners' food. The stove had burnt remains of something equally as nasty as everything else and so many other health violations in the room Shadow couldn't even keep up with.

_But, that doesn't matter right now, all that matters is looking for the keys and getting Sasori out. _Shadow nodded determinedly, and began searching in the coat pockets she had found by the door that stood silently on the other side of the room. She found her bag and slung it over her shoulder, instantly comforted having the usual bag of cloth around her shoulders only a small weight felt on the outside, but at least thousands of millions of pounds inside.

She dropped coat after coat not finding anything until she finally felt the cold hardness of a metal ring. "Gotcha!" She cried in an accomplished voice as she took it out.

She began walking towards the door going into the prisoner's room but something stopped her.

Something in her gut told her to stand still and wait for a few moments. She stopped then she began hearing footsteps outside the other door going out of the small room. She panicked and tensed as she realized whose vibrations those were. The door opened and Shadow gasped seeing a familiar face she hadn't seen in years. "Riku," she breathed.

* * *

_"Shadow! You need to be more careful!" cried a little boy with silver hair and ocean blue eyes, as he ran to help his younger sister up. _

_She looked up at him with similar big blue eyes and said, "Thank you Nii-san, but I'm alright. I only tripped!" she smiled a big smile and giggled at her brother's worry. The two laughed as they walked home together._

On the way back they met Shadow's younger fraternal twin, Akiko, who had been poking at a baby turtle.

"Don't do that to the poor turtle!" Shadow cried taking the turtle and putting it in the little pond nearby where it had come from.

"Why not? It's fun to watch it scramble around slowly trying to get away," Akiko said.

"Akiko, it's cruel to do that to animals, and it's illegal," Riku said rolling his eyes. "Mother wouldn't be pleased."

"Humph, whatever. You're going home right? Well I am too so let's get going."

The trio walked together back home in silence. The twins were six and Riku was eight. It was a particularly hot summer, one of the hottest, and there hadn't been any rain at all. Not even one drop.

When they got home they met their mother, Kaya, who was reading under a cherry blossom tree. She looked up and smiled seeing her children, and made a motion as if to say, "Come-sit-with-me". They went to sit down, enjoying the coolness of the shade of the tree after their walk back home.

"So what have you been up to?" Kaya said her voice like bells, low and sweet. She pushed back her long brown hair and watched her three eldest children with wise blue eyes.

"Shadow and I were playing in the stream outside of town, and we met up with Akiko on the way home who was playing with a turtle." Riku said playing with a blade of grass. Kaya nodded, understanding about the part about Akiko "playing" with a turtle.

"Akiko, did you have fun with the turtle?" Kaya asked watching as Akiko stared, bored, at a couple passing by.

"Yes, mother. It was very satisfying. Too bad Shadow intervened before I could really start to have fun." Kaya winced, but smiled a motherly smile.

Akiko stuck her tongue out at Shadow who did the same right back, the perfect picture of twins. They sat silently wrapped up in their own thoughts when Ryumaru, their step- father, appeared and talked quietly to Kaya. She listened, then brushed herself off and got up from her seat.

"I'm sorry children, but I've been called to a meeting with the family. I may not be back until midnight, Riku; I know you are a very responsible big brother so I expect you to watch over your sisters alright? Go look for Kai for me too." Riku nodded and puffed out his chest proud of getting attention from his mother. But the pride died quickly as he caught a cold, golden-eyed gaze from his stepfather, Ryumaru.

Ryumaru had brown shoulder length hair with half of it tied in a bun and gold eyes that always gave cold stares when he was displeased. And when he was pleased. And for all the emotions in between. Overall, he was just one cold guy in general.

"Oh, and don't forget, this afternoon we are to visit Grandfather and show him what we've learned today. So please don't be late." The adults then walked off together and Riku, Shadow, and Akiko ran off playing tag since there was nothing else to do. Reina, who was sixteen and the eldest child of the family was out at the academy, and wouldn't be home for a few more hours.

"Shadow-Chan!" called a high pitched voice, the siblings froze where they stood and looked to where the voice had come from.

"Ah, Yorokobi-Chan! Kanashimi-Chan! What's up?" Shadow called back.

A girl around the same age Shadow ran up to her, panting slightly and grinned. Following slowly after her came Kanashimi, who wore her usual black clothes and looked as melancholy as ever.

"Nothing much, me and Kana-Chan just got bored so we decided to come and visit." Yorokobi smiled a giant grin, and Kanashimi nodded silently.

It was impossible for Shadow to figure out how Kanashimi, "Kana's" full name, and Yorokobi became friends being that the two were complete opposites. Yorokobi, whose name meant 'joy', was an adventurous carrot top who wore bright orange clothes and had an infectious smile. Her personality radiated happiness whereas Kanashimi, whose name meant 'sadness', was a quiet girl and had black hair and clothes. She spoke in a monotone voice and often looked at things negatively. Even though she looked upon life negatively though, she was kind at heart and often got more attention than she wanted to admit and many people spoke of Yorokobi as though she were a nuisance. Despite this though, Yorokobi held her head high and smiled even brighter. In a way, the two complicated each other.

"I was wondering whether you wanted to come over and swim today," Yorokobi said.

"Oh, sorry Kobi-Chan, but today I have a family meeting with my Grandfather."

"What? Again? That's like, the second time this week. If you don't watch out, you'll become some sort of prune scout!"

Shadow laughed as a giant bead of sweat dropped behind her head and said, "Um, no Kobi-Chan, this is only the first meeting since last month."

"Oh, really? Hm..." Yorokobi looked up as she thought about, then she smiled and asked, "Well, can we play while you wait?"

"Sure!"

And off the group went on another adventurous game.  


* * *

_It was midnight when Shadow woke up drowsily, unsure of what had awoken her when she felt the slender hands of her mother shake her gently. "Shadow. Shadow, I need you to listen to me for a little. Please Shadow, wake up."_

_"Mommy?" Shadow asked, her vision blurred and her mind hazy._

"Yes. Shadow, listen to me please. No matter what Mommy will always love you, so don't lose faith. I promise, you will see me again. Just... Be safe until I return."

Shadow felt slender arms hug her and then a small kiss on her forehead. Then she was put gently back into bed. She tried to open her eyes again but they were too heavy. She managed to open her eyes long enough to see her mother pull a hood over her eyes and walk away. She thought, why is mommy telling me this now? She could always tell me in the morning. She slipped back into dream world, not knowing that this would be the last night she ever saw her mother, or the life she always knew.

In the morning she woke up calling, "Mom? Mom, where are you?" She got out of bed running through the hall to her parents' room. She saw only an empty bed.

She ran to Riku's room, "Where's mother?" She asked him. He said nothing, his back was turned as Shadow asked again but he ignored her again. She stuck her tongue out at him and ran to the nursery where her younger step-brother, Kai's, cribs was. She even looked for Reina, though she knew that she was already out with the Genin squad she was in charge of, and was out on a mission.

She ran to Akiko's room. "Akiko, where's mother?"

Akiko smirked. "Gone. Mother left last night."

"Why?"

"How should I know? Mother is a traitor so she left. She killed granddad because he was going to kill you yesterday since you're so weak. I mean, come on, even Kai, the youngest of all of us, has shown more strength than you."

"You're lying." Shadow said glaring. "Mom would never leave us or betray us by killing her own father... I know she wouldn't!"

"Humph, believe whatever you like, you're only deluding yourself." Akiko turned around skipping to her balcony and closing the door behind her. Shadow ran outside to the courtyard to see her Ryumaru standing at a pond.

"Where's mother?" Shadow asked the tall figure. He said nothing back, and continued staring into the ripples of a pond.

Shadow watched, glaring, "WHERE'S MOTHER?" she asked louder this time. Still no reply. Why was everyone ignoring her or telling her lies?

Her eyes widened as tears began to form. Mom, where are you?

Months later, it finally began to ran. It was a huge thunderstorm that included lightning and thunder and it continued to rain through Kaya's funeral. Earlier that week, the ANBU had returned from an important mission when they came across a bloody body. They returned it to the laboratory for identification and the medic-nin confirmed that it was Kaya Yamoto's body. Shadow cried the whole time as she watched as the coffin was thrown in flames in honor of Kaya.

The next few days Ryumaru began training Akiko, Riku, and Shadow advanced moves. Shadow tried hard to keep up, but it seemed impossible because she was so unhappy. Three days after that, she turned to her brother who pushed her back when she reached out to him. The night that that had happened, Riku left as well. Then the following week, not long after Reina had returned from her current mission for the funeral, she took Kai and left home with him. All three siblings left without a trace or message, and they obviously left the village.

And Shadow was left with her father and Akiko. Out of anger she succeeded in learning bigger and better moves. 

* * *

By age seven she had fully mastered her unusual abilities. And at age eight she was a full-fledged ninja. She was a true prodigy. Age nine she became the youngest ANBU agent and when she turned 13-years-old she joined Team 7 because she decided to restart her ninja years as a "normal" child and earn the ninja ranks normally.

After that, at age fifteen, she left the village on her own, leaving Team 7. She joined an organization called "The Black Orchard", in the hopes that she would manage to kill her step-father, who turned out to be the leader. She worked hard and left that as well, finally coming back to the village.__

And here she is now. Staring face to face with the boy whom she thought she could call "brother".


End file.
